Taking on a Child
by Lolly4Holly
Summary: AU: The Winchester Brother's take on more than they bargained for after responding to a hunter's distress call. Set around season one or two, so no spoilers to the later seasons that I haven't actually seen yet. This is my first official upload for the Supernatural series. Work-in-Progress
1. Prologue

**Taking on a Child**

**Author:** Lolly4Holly

**Characters:** Dean, Sam, John Winchester. Bobby Singer and a few other Supernatural characters.

**Disclaimer:** This fan claims no ownership to any of the Supernatural characters, monsters or story lines. I'm just borrowing them for a while, but I fully intend to give them back unharmed, (mostly).

**Summary:** The Winchester Brother's take on more than they bargained for after responding to a hunter's distress call. Set around season one or two, so no spoilers to the later seasons that I haven't actually seen yet.

**Author's Note:** Hello, Supernatural fans. This is my first official upload for the Supernatural series. I'm still halfway through writing it at the moment, but I wanted to start uploading to see what people thought. So don't worry, new chapters are always right around the corner. Thank you for reading, please let me know what you thought.

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><p><span><strong>Prologue<strong>

"But if it never stops and they just keep coming back, then what's the point in it all? Are you really making a difference or are you just as bad as them? You kill for a living. They kill for a living. It's just an endless cycle of killing, so what makes you better than them?"

Dean grabbed a shotgun from the back of his Impala, giving his younger brother a glare as the eight year old child continued to lecture him on his job. He didn't think he could take another hour of it, but they had finally reached their destination, ready to put an end to the angry spirits killing spree once and for all. He was ready to put a bullet between the eyes of the child they somehow ended up babysitting too, but he knew Sammy would never forgive him for that.

"You two stay here, I'm gonna go inside and check it out."

"Dean, no." Sam immediately protested, following his brother towards the chained gates of the old factory. "I'm not some kid that you can just tell to wait in the car."

"No," Dean cast his eyes towards the child poking through the hunting gear in the back of his car. "She is. Listen, Sammy," He took a step closer to his younger brother, whispering, "If her father's still alive, we have to find him. If not, we get her out of this life. Do you want her to grow up and be like us?"

"We're not so bad." Sam folded his arms across his chest, receiving a glare from his older brother. "Dad brought us up in this life and you've never stopped complaining about it."

"Sam, I don't have time to get into it with you right now." He motioned towards the factory in front of him. "Just... stay with Madison. If I'm not back in twenty minutes... wait longer." He warned his brother, receiving a smile in response.

"Dean." He called after his brother. "Be careful."

His big brother rolled his eyes, muttering, "Wuss," on his way into the factory.

Sam reluctantly returned to the car, prying Madison's curious fingers away from the knifes in the trunk, so he could close it up. He ushered her round to the back of the car, letting her climb inside, before he closed the door. "Does your father usually go off on hunts by himself?" He queried, sitting himself in the driver's seat, just in case he needed to rush to his brother's aid.

The child nodded her head slightly, combing her hair back from her face. It stretched just past her shoulders, starting to darken from her natural mousy blonde colour to a softer brown. "He told me that if he wasn't back in three days, I should call his friend, Carter. He's on a vampire hunt in Florida, so he called his friend, Bobby Singer."

"Then Bobby called us. My Dad used to go off on hunts of his own too. He was sometimes gone for weeks at a time." He sympathised with her. "It was just my brother and me most of the time. My brother raised me more than he ever did. Dean's been taking care of me a lot longer than my Dad ever did."

"Where's your Mom?" Madison climbed over the seats of the Impala, dropping into the passenger seat beside him. She pulled her knees close to her chest, giving him a curious look. "I never knew my Mom. I've seen pictures of her, but I don't know what she was like."

"Same." He agreed with her. "My Mom died when I was a baby. It's how my family got into hunting."

"Is that why Dean is always so uptight?"

"Yeah... maybe a little." He smiled at her, grabbing the duffel bag from behind him as he heard her stomach rumbling again. He searched through his clothes, handing her the last chocolate bar that he had been saving up. He handed it over to her, noticing bruises on her wrist as she reached out for it. She was wearing a pair of tattered jeans with holes in the knees and a dirty white t-shirt with a purple butterfly stitched into the fabric. On top of that she had on old navy blue hooded sweatshirt that looked way too big for her, but she didn't want to take it off.

Sam had only known her for the last fifteen hour drive after they rescued her, but he felt as though he already knew her already as he had lived through her childhood. Only he had his brother around to look out for him when his father went missing, she didn't have anybody with the disappearance of her father.

Madison finished off the candy bar within a few minutes, resting her head back against the chair as the two of them waited for Dean to return. It felt like hours had passed by, before Sam finally decided to check his phone.

"Sam, if this ghost is taking revenge on the people that killed him, why'd he take my Dad?" She curiously asked him.

"Sometimes ghosts can't distinguish the difference between someone who did wrong to them or someone that just happens to be around." Sam tried to explain to her, hoping her father didn't have anything to do with it. "Your father was trying to stop him, before he wiped out the rest of the Miller family. I guess the spirit saw him as a threat. Did your father ever teach you how to stop ghosts?"

"Iron, salt and burning the bones." She remembered. "What if the spirit is after Dean now? He's trying to stop it, so it could see him as a threat and take him out while we're sat out here. We should probably go in after him."

"Hey," Sam tried to stop her from climbing out of the car, quickly grabbing his gun from the glove compartment, before he hurried after her towards the chained gate that his brother had already climbed through. "Madison," He holstered his weapon, grabbing an iron bar from by the gate, before he squeezed through himself. He hated musty old factories, but he couldn't leave her to fend for herself in the final resting place of a vengeful spirit.

Things didn't look good when he found Dean's knife on the concrete floor. He continued through the factory with the iron bar trained out in front of him, following the eerie tingle down the back of his neck that his brother called instincts towards the most dangerous section of the factory.

"Madison." He spotted her creeping down the next hallway, putting his finger to his lips, before he ushered her towards him. "Don't go running off like that again." He grabbed the flash light from her hand, trading it for his brother's knife. "Hold it out like this." He curled her fingers around the handle of the knife, holding it out in front of her. "Stay behind me. Watch my back. We'll find Dean together."

He pulled her behind him, taking the lead with the light of the flash light in his hand. He checked behind him every so often to make sure she was still there, secretly wishing his brother was there to protect them.

He found the start of the summoning ritual in the next open area, feeling a chill as he spotted his brother's gun on the floor. None of the candles were lit, but the circle in the centre had been broken, so he guessed that the ritual had worked in summoning the angry spirit back to its resting place, but it couldn't contain the power of the spirit. He tried to tell his brother that it wouldn't be strong enough to hold the spirit, but he still saw him as his idiot brother.

"Take this." Sam placed his brother's shotgun in the child's hands, after checking that it still had salt rounds in it. He slowly moved the light of his flash light through the shadows of the room, noticing his ice cold breath as he breathed out. It felt like a hundred degrees outside, so the spirit was definitely here. "Stay back." He held the child behind him, quickly turning his head at the sound of a clattering noise. He turned the other way as soon as he heard a louder clattering noise, followed by the sudden advance of a shadowy spirit.

Sam swung for the ghost with the iron bar in his hands, splitting the shadowy figure in two, before it faded into nothing. He really hated it when they did that, but it bought him some time to try and figure out what to do. He couldn't swing at it all night and hope for the best.

He needed a plan.

"Madison." He had an idea, grabbing the canister of salt that his brother had left behind. He took the knife and gun from her hands, ditching them in his brother's duffel. He poured a decent amount of salt onto the ground in a full circle around her, placing the flash light in one of her hands and the iron bar in the other. "I just remembered that Hanson played the winning company baseball game. The ball was framed and put the bosses office as a remembrance to their victory." He motioned towards the office on the level up from them. "Spirits sometimes attach themselves to this plain with personal objects."

"You think he's attached to that?" Madison watched him searching through his brother's bag, finding lighter fluid and some matches.

"If it comes back, stay inside the circle. It can't pass through the salt." He wrapped her little fingers tightly around the iron rod. "If it comes at you, hit it with that. It won't stop it, but it'll slow it down. It'll take him a while to recharge, before he can come back. I've gotta go and burn the baseball, so we can find Dean and your Dad. I'll be right back. Just stay inside the circle, okay?"

Madison quickly nodded her head, gulping softly as he started to walk away from her.

Sam hurried up the metal staircase two at a time, seeing his breath as he reached the top. He held his brother's shotgun at the ready, feeling the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end as he made his way towards the office.

"Dean!" He screamed at the sight of his brother being throttled by the spirit. He didn't want to hurt his brother with the shotgun blast, so he flung a handful of salt at it instead.

The spirit dissipated into thin air, dropping Dean to his knees, coughing and spluttering to get his breath back. "Took you long enough." He growled, motioning towards the baseball in the cabinet. "Get it, quick. We have to... Sammy!"

The spirit materialised within seconds, flinging Sam into the wall. He grabbed his throat to start choking the younger brother, leaving Dean to scramble across the room for the baseball. He smashed the cabinet open with his elbow, drenching the baseball in lighter fluid while his brother was gasping for breath across the room.

"Hey!" Dean shouted as soon as he had a match lit, holding it directly over the baseball. "Say goodnight, bitch!" He dropped the match a second later, watching as the shadowy spirit began to take on a more human form, before it released Sam, burning up from his chest out.

He never got tired of watching spirits do that.

Sam gasped for breath as soon as it was gone, giving his brother a frown. "Nice. You couldn't have saved me before you did that?"

"You were distracting it for me." Dean clapped his hand over his younger brother's shoulder, giving him a smile. "Quit your whining, Sammy. It's over. I'm hungry." He rubbed his empty stomach. "Let's go get something to eat."

His younger brother rolled his eyes, rubbing his sore throat as he collected up his things from the office floor. He paused the second he noticed a fog watch hiding in the dust beneath the desk, recognising it from the photo that Madison had of her father. "Hey Dean," He picked it up by its chain, holding it up so his brother could see it. "He was here. Do you think he followed the same trail as us to find Hanson's spirit?"

"Isn't that why we followed this trail in the first place?" Dean grabbed the watch from his hand, brushing the dust from the clock face with his thumb. "I'm not going on another wild goose chase to find another missing father." He quickly warned his brother, hearing a scream coming from the factory floor. "What was that?"

"Madison!" Sam pushed his brother out of the way, hurrying down the stairs as fast as he could. He rushed straight towards the rolling flash light on the floor, directing it towards the salt circle he had left her in, only it was broken. "Madison!" He immediately started searching the room.

"You brought her in here with you?" Dean saw the second salt circle that wasn't there before, collecting up his duffel from the floor. "We took the spirit out, so what's the deal here? Are we dealing with something else entirely or is Hanson's spirit too strong to be taken out the usual way?"

"He burnt up, Dean."

"Fake out?" His brother suggested, leading the way to start their search. "How'd this guy Hanson die anyway?"

"See, maybe if you listened to me every once in a while..."

"Details, Sam!" He snapped him out of his whinging.

Sam glared at him, anxiously scanning the factory for any sign of the child they had lost. "He was sleeping with one of his colleagues wife's. David Miller's . . . his first target. His colleagues said a fight broke out in the factory, Hanson got himself caught in some of the machinery and was crushed to death. Factory closed down pending the investigation, then the employees started dying one by one. Hanson held them all responsible since they didn't stop David and helped him to cover it up as a workplace accident."

"So it happened here?" Dean looked around at the machinery, wondering if they could get it to work. "Crushed to death?"

"Yeah, what remains they did find were cremated."

"If the baseball was a fake out, then there must still be something left of him here. He was crushed in one of these?" He knelt down to take a closer look inside the machine, shivering at the thought of what could be left inside.

"Blood?" Sam directed the light of his flash light towards the old brownish stain near one of the machines. "We can't burn this place to the ground with Madison and her father still in it."

"So find them." Dean looked around for anything that would light better than the metal machinery and concrete floor, finding some wooden pallets stacked against the wall. "Hurry, Sam."

"Madison!" Sam took off running through the large machinery, eventually finding her passed out on the floor at the end of the factory floor. "Madison?" He whipped around as he heard a scuffling sound, hoping it was Dean, but no such luck.

The even angrier spirit flung him away from the child, bashing him against one of the heavy machines. He shot him back in the other direction, winding Sam's chest against a heavy pipe, before he let him fall to the floor.

Sam had a moment to try and struggle to his feet, before he was flung into the air again, making him hate this particular spirit more than usual. He waited until he was back on the ground, before he played dead. He could feel where the spirit was from the sudden cold breeze over his shoulder. He grabbed the salt shotgun as soon as he was sure, firing off two rounds into its chest, scattering his black ashes it into thin air once again.

He just hoped that he would stay that way.

"Madison." He crawled to his feet towards her, brushing her hair aside to take a look at the cut she had on her head. He figured she'd survive as he had suffered through worse injuries than that at her age. He lifted her into his arms, spotting a body laying in the distance. He wanted to get back to Dean so they could get out of there and finally destroy Hanson's angry spirit, but he had to know who it was.

"Sammy c'mon, hurry up." Dean emptied the last of the fuel over the wooden pallets, not even noticing the look on his brother's face as he searched for a lighter in his jacket pockets. "I found a gas line running directly to the machines." He pointed above them. "We can take it out on our way out, send the whole building up in flames to make sure." He grabbed his duffel, spotting the fog watch in his brother's hand. "Did you find him?"

Sam gave him a slight nod, holding the child securely against his side, making sure that she was still out. "He's dead. Crushed. Hanson killed him."

Dean anxiously licked his bottom lip, before he tossed the lighter over his shoulder. He hurried his brother out of the building, taking apart one of the gas lines near the entrance, slowly filling the building with gas. He stopped to look from a safe distance as the fire consumed every inch of gas, finally blowing the top off the building like a volcano.

The Winchester brothers ditched their equipment in the trunk of the Impala, exchanging a look as the fire continued to roar in the distance. They had been chasing the ghost of their own father for months now, only to stumble across another hunter's kid in the same boat as them. They didn't want to believe that their own father had suffered the same fate as Madison's, but the trail to find him was as cold as ice at the moment.

"Don't say it, Sam."

"Dean... we can't just leave her." Sam ignored his brother, looking at the child in question sleeping on the back seat of the Impala. "She doesn't have anybody anymore." He knew that the right thing to do would be to find her somewhere safe to live an ordinary childhood that they never had, but he didn't want to abandon her like her father did for a hunt. "We can train her, like Dad trained us."

"You really think that's a good idea?" Dean cocked an eyebrow in his brother's direction. "You complain about how Dad raised us all the time, now you want to do the same to this kid?"

"Being a hunter isn't a job, Dean. You always treat it like it is, but it's a way of life. Once you know what's out there, you can't go back to being ordinary. She knows too much already. Bobby said her father was a great hunter and look what happened to him. There's probably tons of freaks out there that are gonna want some revenge. We've had to deal with that our whole lives, we could at least prepare her the same way Dad did with us."

"When Dad gave you that same speech, you ran out on us for Stanford." He reminded his younger brother. "Now you're giving it to me for some kid that we barely even know? It's a mistake, Sammy." Dean watched his brother making his way round to the passenger side of the car, giving out a heavy sigh as he really didn't want to take on the responsibility of a child.

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><p><strong>Thank you, please remember to leave me a review if you liked it.<strong>

**~ Holly**


	2. Chapter One: Child Endangerment

**Chapter One - Child Endangerment**

"C'mon . . . five minutes."

Checking around the room to make sure that it was really empty, Sam opened the window a little wider, before he lifted eight year old, Madison through it. He followed her lead through the motel room she had been staying in with her father, grabbing a backpack for her to stuff her things into. His older brother, Dean had no idea where they went, so he had to be quick. They had already been on the road with Madison for the past three days, so he thought it was about time that they took her back to the last place she called home to at least get a change of clothes or something that was familiar to her.

"Looks clear." He shut off his flash light, handing the bag over to her. "Grab some clothes. I'm gonna look around." He gave her a smile, before he made his way across the hall to her father's bedroom. It looked pretty ordinary, but when he pulled open the closet and pushed aside all the clothes, he found the usual hunter gear, maps and research. He collected them all up, taking any other weapons he found under the mattress and stashed away in cupboards around the house.

"Check the freezer." Madison jumped down from the table, after successfully zipping up her backpack overflowing with clothes and a ragged brown teddy bear tucked under her arm.

Sam pulled open the freezer door, smirking at the sight of the salt shotgun rounds stashed away in there. "Hey, I forgot to give you something of your father's." He knelt down in front of her, pulling the fog watch out of his jacket pocket. "I think he would have wanted you to have it."

Madison brushed her fingers across the inscription on the back, reading 'Until the end of time.'

"My Mom gave it to him before I was born." She popped open a button on her jacket, stuffing it inside. "I could just stay here." She suggested. "Dean doesn't like me very much anyway."

"You can't stay here anymore, Madison. Your Dad wouldn't want you to be alone. Dean wouldn't want you to be alone either. It's not safe. C'mon, we should get back." Sam threw the rest of the salt shotgun rounds into his bag, taking Madison out of the motel room the way they came in to avoid the manager.

He gave her a moment to say goodbye to the place that she had called home for the past four months or so, before they got back to the motel they had been staying at, finding Dean still fast asleep. He put his finger to his lips as they tiptoed back inside, getting Madison set up in his bed to sleep, while he took the couch.

The next morning, they packed up their things, leaving for Wyoming. The unusual newspaper reports from the area had them convinced that a shapeshifter had taken up residence there. Sam didn't want to go since there was no evidence to say that their father was there, making the car deathly quiet the whole way as the Winchester brothers still weren't talking.

"Lock pick?" Dean held his hand out to his brother, catching the kit as his brother threw it to him. They had finally arrived in Wyoming, deciding to check out the first victims house according to the newspapers. The door was sealed up with police crime tape, which was easy to cut through, but the lock took a little longer to get open. "Geez... shoulda hired a maid."

Sam stepped through the door, taking a look at the mess in the front room. "Papers said his remains of skin, teeth and hair were found in there." He continued through to the kitchen, finding more blood splatter. "What exactly are we looking for here?"

"Anything that points to the shapeshifter theory." He glanced over his shoulder at the car, making sure that Madison had stayed put. "What do you think you're doing, Sam? Do you really think that fetching teddy bears is going to make it all better? She's just a kid."

"Yeah well, I don't see you do anything for her."

"We should have ditched her at Bobby's or the nearest foster home three counties back." Dean argued, abandoning his search of the room to look at his brother. "This... what you're doing... taking her on hunts, training her... it's ridiculous. She's just a kid."

"We were just kids when Dad started us on all of this." Sam pointed out to him, looking at the pictures pinned to the fridge door.

"Would you stop bringing Dad up? I loved the guy, but maybe he wasn't exactly thinking clearly about raising his kids into hunting demons. We were just kids, Sam. We lost our Mom and our father was more interested in finding the thing that killed her then raising his kids right." Dean finally let his true feelings out, giving his younger brother a confused look as he continued to stare at the photos on the fridge. "What?"

"This guy..." He pointed to the one in the middle. "This is his house. He was the first to die. These three here, died within a few days. These two on the end are still alive... as far as I know. Dean, these are all the victims."

"So the killings aren't random? Shapeshifter with a grudge." Dean sighed, moving the fridge magnets off the photo, so he could pick it up. "I freaking hate shapeshifters." He shuddered, stuffing the photo into his pocket. "We have to ditch the kid. A shapeshifter's too dangerous."

"Ditch her where? We don't exactly know anyone in Wyoming, Dean. She's staying with us."

"She has the chance to be a regular kid. The longer she spends with us, the more corrupted she's gonna get. Hunters have short life spans as it is." Dean tried to put it simply for his younger brother. "She's just a kid, Sam. Why are you trying to force this on her like Dad forced it on us? We didn't have a choice, she does."

"Following the patterns of the murders, someone else is gonna die tonight. We don't have time to stand around and argue about this. She's staying with us, while we work this case." His younger brother stormed out of the house, making his way back to the Impala. He ditched his weapons back in the trunk, slumping back into the passenger seat, waiting for his brother.

"So where to?" Dean finally returned to the car, not liking this plan for a second.

"Morgue. We need to see the bodies."

"We can't take a kid into the morgue with us." Dean motioned over his shoulder, hoping Sam wouldn't subject her to that so early on. "Let's find a motel, ditch our stuff then make our way over to the morgue. We've still got a few hours left. We just have to find the remaining two people in this photo, find what's killing them then kill it ourselves. C'mon Sam, we've done this a hundred times before."

"Alright," He snapped, motioning to the road. "Let's get going then."

Madison stayed quiet in the back of the car, waiting patiently in the back, while Dean booked them a motel room. She had been through the same process before with her father, making her miss him even more. She grabbed her bag as soon as they had a room, following the Winchester brothers inside.

The walls were a sickly pea green colour, spreading out across the floor and furniture against all of the walls. It wasn't overly light, but she could see straight through to the bland kitchen to the two large double beds in the middle of the room with spotted green sheets. The lamps either side of them were red and the pillows had a tartan strip running across each side. It didn't really match the rest of it, but she could already tell that the motel owner had no taste from the style of the curtains against the two windows.

Dean ditched his duffel onto the first bed, taking a look around the motel that would be home for the next few days. He handed his younger brother some cash from his pocket, expecting him to get them some food.

"Don't forget the pie." He warned him, taking a seat on the end of his bed.

He waited until his brother was really gone, before he turned to look at the child curiously looking at the paintings on the walls. She had her backpack high on her shoulders, clutching her teddy bear tightly in her little arms. He didn't understand why his brother saw just another hunter when he looked at her. She was still practically a baby and needed to be protected from things like this.

"Seen one motel room, seen em all, right?" He finally broke the silence, talking to her directly for the first time in three days. He had been avoiding her since her father died, not wanting to admit that his own father might have suffered the same fate. "We can stay here for a few days, if you want. I remember how it was moving from place to place all the time."

"Because of your Dad?"

Dean nodded his head, ushering her closer towards him. He rolled up the long sleeve of her sweatshirt, checking on the graze she had on her elbow. "It's almost healed. Does it hurt?" She shook her head from side to side, making her pigtails whip around her shoulders. She had been tying her hair herself over the past few days, but she hadn't exactly got the hang of it yet. "You can take your bag off if you want."

Madison turned as he lifted the heavy bag off her shoulders, setting it down on the bed beside him. "What are you hunting?"

"Well, we think it's a shapeshifter. Did your Dad ever come up against a shapeshifter?" He caught a slight head shake from her, before he pulled out his father's journal to show her the lore on shapeshifter's. He tried to leave out as much gory details as possible, telling her the basic weaknesses should she ever run into one.

"How can you tell it's a shapeshifter?" Madison queried, clutching her teddy bear tightly in her arms.

"Usually from the way they shed the old skin. We dealt with one before in Missouri that was framing men for the murders of their wives or girlfriends. We found it's lair in the sewer with piles of the old skin, hair and bones. It can copy anyone it sees, so it's kinda hard to tell when you're looking at them. Their eyes have a white glare to them in a video camera, animals can detect them and they're allergic to silver, but that's all we know so far."

"Are they always bad?"

Dean shrugged his shoulders, closing up his father's diary on his lap. "All the ones I've met have been bad. Demons are demons as far as I'm concerned. Every one of those sons of bitches deserves to put down." He searched his pockets as his cell started to ring, snapping it open to answer it. "Sam, what's up? They all out of pie."

"No, I saw sirens. There's been a attack. A few blocks over from the motel. Dean, bring the ID's."

Dean snapped his phone shut, replacing his father's journal to his bag. He pulled out his spare cell phone from the side pocket, handing it over to the child in front of him. "Lock the door behind me. There's salt and iron in my bag. Don't open the door for anyone other than Sam or me." He warned her the same way his father used to warn him every night he went on a hunt, feeling a shiver running down his spine as said it.

He waited outside until he heard the click of the lock, before he left to meet his brother at the next crime scene.

Madison scrambled onto the bed that Dean had claimed, taking a peek inside his bag. She found the canister full of salt, various loose bullets in the bottom and every kind of knife she could have imagined. The bag was basically the same set up as her father's, only his duffel wasn't so ragged. He could never hold down a full time job since he was always on the move, but he worked as a mechanic when he could, spending most of his money on his beloved truck or new supplies for hunting.

His truck was with Bobby Singer now and the last of his supplies had been added to the trunk of the Winchesters as though the man never even existed.

"Here." Dean handed his brother one of their police ID's from his jacket, making sure that it had his picture in it, before he let it go. "Are you sure this is our thing?" He caught sight of the young woman being wheeled out of the store on a gurney.

"Victim says she was attacked by her clone, while she was trying her dress on in the back." Sam rolled his eyes as his brother's eyes immediately lit up. "Dean, c'mon... focus. Cops thinks she's crazy, but it looks like our shapeshifter was here."

"And she saw herself?"

"Yeah." Sam followed his brother's gaze, realising he had spotted her clone stood in the crowd of looky-loos at the edge of the crime tape. "She's one of the girls from the photo. What do we do? We can't shoot her in front of all these people. Dean." He hissed his name, but his brother had already slipped under the crime tape as if he owned the place. He flashed his badge at the officers on the scene, strolling right up to the woman, scaring her off the second they made eye contact.

Dean forced his way through the crowd, chasing her down the alley. He couldn't even keep up with her for five seconds and she was in heels. "Son of a bitch." He reached the end of the alley, panting as he watched her climbing up the fire escape like a bionic woman. "Damn it."

"You lost her?" Sam came running up behind him, looking up as his brother pointed up the fire escape.

"Son of a bitch is fast. She's probably going to the hospital to finish the job she started."

"I'll go." Sam holstered his weapon. "No offence, Dean, but you don't exactly have the subtle touch. Find out everything you can about the other girl in the photo. She's probably our shapeshifter if she's the only one left."

"Man, why me?"

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><p>A few hours later, Dean returned to their motel room, nodding to his brother sat at the table, before he cast his eyes towards their beds. He frowned at the child who was sprawled out on his bed of all places, holding her teddy bear close with her thumb in her mouth as she slept.<p>

"Son of a... Did you get a chance to talk to our victim at the hospital?" He asked is younger brother, dropping the keys to the Impala on the table.

"Yeah, she only saw herself." Sam tapped away at the keys on his laptop, continuing with his research on the college friends. "She was supposed to meet her friend, Ella for a shopping trip, but she never showed up. She thinks something's been after her for weeks. What'd you find out?"

"I think we might have a killer among friends situation here. Ella used to be a fat girl." Dean playfully raised his eyebrows, showing him the old picture of the young woman. "She might be our shapeshifter. Her friends and family report that she practically lost the weight overnight. And get this, she was adopted. All her friends went off to successful colleges, leaving her at home with dear old adopted Mom. She managed to magically lose the weight, but she couldn't make, Tray Thompson like her."

"What?" Sam finally glanced round at his brother, frowning as he realised he had a heart shaped diary in his hands. "You stole her diary?"

"Yeah. Her Mom let me take a look around her bedroom. Everything's in here." Dean dropped to the end of the other bed, reading through another page. "I think she's definitely our shapeshifter. She talks about how she discovered what she could do and how she was going to make her so called friends pay for everything they did to her." He flipped through a few more pages, before he tossed it over his shoulder. "Now we just have to find her and put a silver bullet through her heart."

"Have you still got some?"

"Yeah." He rubbed the sleep from his eyes, looking at Madison asleep on the next bed. "How long has she been out?"

Sam shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. She was out when I got back. Did Ella's Mom give you any clue as to how we can find her?"

"No, but she's probably going to hang around the hospital to finish the job she started on that boyfriend stealing whore, Cassie." He directly quoted her diary again, pulling his gun out of his jacket to check that it was loaded. His favourite custom engraved 45 calibre colt pistol with ivory grips, given to him by his own father after he shot the bottle tops off every target at age nine. "I'll take first shift at the hospital. Make sure the kid eats something as soon as she wakes up."

"The kid has a name. And she just lost her Dad, you could try being a little more sympathetic to her."

"I'm sympathetic." Dean grabbed the blanket from the end of the bed, unravelling it across the sleeping child. "Just make sure she eats something, okay? She wouldn't eat that sandwich you gave her earlier because you didn't cut the crusts off." He pointed out to him, collecting up the keys to his Impala. "Shame on you, Sam."

"C'mon man, how am I supposed to know that?"

Dean grinned at his younger brother, making his way out to his car. He made his way straight over to the hospital, tempted to stop by the cafeteria from the scent of the home cooked food being served behind the counter, but he had a job to do. He found the ward that Cassie was being treated on, finding an officer posted outside the room, only the man had fallen asleep on the job.

"Figures." Dean rolled his eyes, pushing the door to the patient's room open.

He couldn't see her right away because the curtain was closed around her bed, but he could hear a strange tapping noise. He pushed his jacket aside to hold the handle of his gun in his waistband, slowly reaching out to grab the curtain in front of him. He swung it open in one swift motion, covering his hand over his mouth at the sight of what was left of boyfriend stealing, Cassie.

The tapping noise he heard was her blood dripping onto the floor. She looked as though she had been mauled by a wild animal and no one had even noticed.

"Sammy, it's me." He got through to his brother's voicemail outside of the hospital. "Ella got to Cassie. This chicks seriously hyped up on PCP or something. I'm gonna head over to her Mom's place, see if she shows up. Call me if you find anything."

Dean left on another reckless solo mission, leaving Sam in charge of babysitting at the motel.

"Can you eat just one slice of pizza for me?" Sam took the pizza box over to Dean's bed, setting it down in front of the child. "Just one, you haven't eaten anything in a while. You've gotta keep your strength up, Madi." He held the box a little closer to her, smiling as she picked up one piece. She peeled off the pepperonis first, flicking them into the box. She took off the chillies and things next, leaving the pizza crust and cheese. "You don't like pizza?"

Madison shook her head slightly. "I don't like pepperoni."

"You're not allergic to anything, are you?" He decided to check, just in case they fed her something by accident. She shook her head, licking her lips as some of the melted cheese missed her mouth. "Here..." He grabbed one of the napkins from behind him, wiping her sticky little fingers for her. "You know, when my brother and me were little, we used to live off spaghetti Os and cap'n crunch."

"Pizza and peanut butter jelly sandwiches." The child related to him. "Did you know my Daddy?"

"No, not really. Bobby said he met him a few times on some hunts, but they didn't know each other that well. The thing about hunters is that they're kinda solitary." Sam tried to explain to her, moving on to sharpen the next knife from his bag, now that he had gotten her to eat something. "My Dad never really took me out with him when I was a kid. Not solo anyway, Dean was always there to watch my back. When I was about your age, he either left me with Dean in some dingy hotel room like this or with Bobby. He wanted me to hunt with him and Dean, but I left for college."

"Why'd you come back?" Madison gave him a curious look.

"Dean." He sighed softly, shoving his knife into his belt. "He came back for me after our father went missing. I finally got hunting out of my life and he's sucked me back into it, because he doesn't want to do it alone. I'm starting to think that we're never gonna find our Dad though."

Checking the time on his watch, Sam anxiously looked at his phone, wondering why his brother hadn't checked in with him yet.

"Hey Madi, put your shoes on, we've gotta go look for my brother." Sam instructed, collecting up his things from the bed.

Madison crawled towards the edge of the bed, leaving sticky pizza handprints as she climbed off the bed. She hurried across the room for her sneakers, sitting herself on the floor to pull them on. They had velcro straps to them, so she didn't have to ask Sam to help her with them.

"Here." Sam handed her one of the sharpened knifes. "It won't kill a shapeshifter, but you can hurt it with that. Tuck it into your belt."

Madison tucked the knife into the belt of her jeans, resting her t-shirt behind it. She still had on the same tattered jeans, but she switched her butterfly t-shirt for a long sleeved navy blue one just like Sam's. She followed him out to the car, taking the passenger seat rather than the back, since it was just the two of them. She stayed in the car while Sam went to speak with Ella's mother, finding out that she had directed his brother to her father's closed down art studio, where Ella liked to go after work.

Sam cautiously pulled up outside the building, seeing a flickering light inside. He grabbed a gun from the duffel, holding the door open for Madison to slide out of the car, before they both made their way towards the building.

He crouched below one of the dirty windows, slowly taking a peek inside. He could see various candles lit all around the trashed studio inside, along with his brother tied to a chair. He ducked as soon as he spotted another figure in the room with him, hearing her muffled voice as she spoke to his brother.

"This isn't personal, Dean. I've got nothing against you personally. Or your brother. I just wanted to get on with my life. You're the ones sticking your noses in where they don't belong." Ella shouted at him, turning to primp her hair in the shattered mirror against the wall.

"If you're gonna keep talking my ears off, you might as well just kill me now, bitch."

Ella glared him in the mirror, turning on her heels to slap him square across the face for that remark. "You know, maybe I've got this all wrong, Dean. Maybe I should take it personally and wipe out that little brother of yours?" She grabbed the collar to his jacket, examining him like a science experiment. "Might be fun to take on being you for a while. Shame about the packaging, but that Sammy's a real treat. I'm gonna enjoy tearing him up, piece by piece."

While his older brother flinched in his restraints from another strike to the face, Sam found a way into the back of the studio, sneaking inside with Madison behind him. He gave a signal to her to wait, while he crept out of the shadows with his gun drawn.

"Step away from my brother!" He ordered, surprising both, Ella and Dean.

"Sammy, nice of you to join the party." Ella took a slight step away from her prisoner, playfully raising her hands at her sides in a surrender pose.

Before he had the chance to pull the trigger, she appeared at his side, smashing him into the wall. She cracked his arm over her knee in the next split second, making him drop his gun. He tried to swing at her but she moved so fast, all he hit was air.

"Shoot her, Sam!" Dean helplessly struggled in his restraints, watching his brother being beaten by the super fast shapeshifter.

"Don't take this the wrong way," She laughed as she smacked him across the jaw, grabbing a handful of his hair as he struggled to get up from the floor. "But you fight like a girl." She kicked him in the face with her heel, before she dragged him across the floor by the collar of his shirt towards the shards of mirror on the ground.

"Sam!" His older brother tried desperately to break free from his restraints, squinting the second he saw a shadowy figure in the distance. "Madison?" He made sure that Ella was preoccupied, before he ushered her over. "Sam should not have brought you here."

Madison pulled the knife from her belt, ignoring his stubbornness to cut him free from the ropes holding him down. He snatched the knife from her to do his other arm himself, since he was stronger and needed to get to his brother. He pushed her aside as soon as he was free, running for his brother, before Ella slit his throat.

"Ahh, you are gonna pay for that you jerk!" Ella held the slash to her arm from his knife, stabbing his younger brother's arm with a piece of glass, before she took him down.

The shapeshifter held her hands tightly around Dean's throat while he was on the ground, digging her talon claw nails into him as she tried to choke the life out of him. He tried to pry her hands away from him to breathe, but she was too strong. He looked around for anything he could use, but his gun was clear across the room. The knife was just a few inches out of his reach and his brother wasn't doing too well after his head had hit the table.

It was hopeless.

He heard a piercing gunshot sound a few seconds later, seeing blood gushing from a hole that had appeared in Ella's head. He felt the talons around his throat becoming looser as she struggled to her feet, stumbling around in her heels, before a second shot was fired.

Still gasping for breath, he managed to tilt his head back before the next shot left the gun, widening his eyes at the sight of Madison wielding his gun. The eight year old squeezed her eyes tightly shut as she pulled the trigger a few more times, finally piercing Ella's heart with one of the silver bullets.

Dean watched the shapeshifter fall down, making sure she was really dead, before he rolled himself over. He left his brother to get himself up, while he cautiously made his way over to the shooter, gently prying the gun from her little hands.

"It's okay, it's okay..." He set the gun down on the floor, gently reaching his arms out to her to hug her. She hesitantly took a step closer to him, dropping her little head to his shoulder. It was something he had always wanted his own father to do so many times when he was a kid, but his old man was always more concerned with the job then making sure that his boys were okay.

* * *

><p><strong>End of first chapter. I forgot to mention from the start that this would be an AU (alternate universe) story, but the characters, Sam and Dean will pretty much be the same as they are from seasons one and two. I hope you've enjoyed the story so far.<strong>

**Thank you for reading, please review!**

**~ Holly**


	3. Chapter Two: Babysitting Troubles

**Chapter Two - Babysitting Troubles**

"Okay enough, Sam." Leaning on the hood of his beloved Impala, Dean glared at his younger brother stood beside the open passenger side door. "I'm not doing this with you anymore. There is nothing okay about bringing an eight year old on a werewolf hunt. It's too dangerous. She's just a kid."

"Yeah, a kid that saved your ass a couple of weeks ago."

"What is wrong with you?" He snapped, screwing up the map that they had laid out on the hood. "When did you stop giving a crap about a kid? You used to bitch and complain when Dad dragged us all over the place to hunt the butt uglys that haunt this world. You couldn't wait to get away from it all; live out a normal life with all your college friends. You come back and you suddenly want to drag an eight year old into this world? Why?"

"She's a hunter, like us."

"No she isn't. Her _father_ was a hunter." Dean corrected him. "And in case you've forgotten, he's dead. She's just a kid. She carries a teddy bear everywhere and sucks her thumb when she sleeps. She is _not_ a hunter. She's still practically a baby, Sam, and she's gonna get herself killed, especially if you keep dragging her along to every hunt."

"So, what do you want to do with her, Dean? Leave her on the roadside, have her hitch a ride across the county to Bobby's. We're here now, we might as well finish the job."

Dean took a step closer to his younger brother, looking directly into his eyes. "Man, I don't even know who you are anymore. You can finish the job solo. I'll take her back to Bobby's myself." He decided that it was the safest option for Madison at this point, grabbing his duffel to pack up a few things.

"You're gonna leave me to handle a werewolf on my own. Really?" Sam looked at him surprised, actually feeling a little bit excited about his first solo hunt. "And you're leaving me the Impala?"

"No." He threw the bag at Sam, showing him that it was his things he had packed into the bag. "She's coming with me. You can hitch a ride back."

"Dean, this is ridiculous." Sam ditched his bag back in the car. "I'm not saying we send her out there alone to deal with these things. I know it's dangerous, I'm not an idiot. I'm just saying that we should train her, so she's prepared. Do you think the monsters that we deal with everyday care that she's just a kid? Her father was a hunter, which means she's cursed, just like us."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" He frowned at his younger brother.

"You know exactly what it means, Dean, so don't pretend you don't. They don't care if she's just a kid. She's a hunters kid, just like we were. Dad left us alone so many times. You think I don't remember you staying up all night, loading guns, sharpening blades, constantly checking the windows and doors? You were on edge all the time as a kid, because of how Dad raised us. We were just kids when he left us alone to fend for ourselves. He's done it again and you're still defending the man, Dean. When are you gonna see him for the man he really is?"

Dean sighed softly, realising he wasn't going to win this argument either. He angrily slammed the door to his car, snatching up the crumpled map from the dirt. He wanted to defend his father, but after so many months on the road, he was starting to lose faith that they'd ever find him.

Leaving his older brother to his tantrum, Sam made his way into the gas station they were parked outside of, grabbing some snack foods for their trip. He paid for them at the counter, stopping by the rest rooms beside it to see if Madison was ready to go yet. The gas station didn't have separate ladies and men's rooms, so he walked right in, finding her open backpack on the sink counter.

"Madi?" Sam checked the doors to the two separate stalls, finding them both empty. He immediately took off running back to the car, hoping she had just forgotten her bag, but Dean was the only one there. "Dean, where is she?"

"I thought she was in..." Dean saw the bag in his brother's hand, dropping the map to run back to the bathroom his brother just came from. He searched every inch of it, before he went through the store, starting to feel his heart racing with panic as there was no sign of her. "Damn it Sam, where is she?"

"Dean." He pointed up, making him look at the surveillance camera right outside the gas station. He ran back to the car to grab the first police ID he could get his hands on, showing it to the guy in the store so they could get a look at the footage.

"C'mon Sammy, hurry it up." Dean leant over his shoulder, watching him fast forwarding through the footage on a regular VCR in the back of the store. The film wasn't exactly the best quality since it was in black and white and all grainy, but they could just about make out their car pulling up, Madison leaving them to use the rest room and them arguing by the car. "There." He tapped his brother on the shoulder. "Play it, c'mon."

"I am . . . jerk." He muttered, using the damaged buttons to play the tape.

Dean leant forwards a little more, watching Madison catching the last part of their argument, before she decided to take off on her own while they were distracted. "Bitch."

"Dean, she's just a kid."

"I meant you." He slapped his brother's head, hurrying back through the store to get to his car. "C'mon, hurry it up. She can't of got far." He climbed into the driver's seat, starting up the engine while his brother collected up their things from the hood. He put his foot down before Sam had even sat down, receiving a scowl from his brother after he managed to get in the moving vehicle.

"Do you have to go so fast? You could hit her or something."

"I'm not gonna hit her." Dean scowled back at his brother, anxiously checking the road and empty fields around them. "We've gotta get her out of this life, Sam. Can you not see that she's just a kid? She hears us arguing about her and takes off. Anything could happen to her out here."

"So you still don't think that she's safer with us?"

"No." His brother rolled his eyes. "Our lives are the complete opposite of safe, Sam. What makes you think that any part of our lives is safe for an eight year old? She needs parents, a proper house, school, friends her own age and a father that's gonna protect her from stuff like this."

"You mean all the stuff that we never had?" Sam realised why his brother was trying to push this.

"We had a Dad, Sam. He did the best he could." His older brother sighed softly, wishing their father had been there for them a little more. He still remembered what it was like to have a real father, before all the demons and monsters, but Sam never got to experience that side of the man.

He envied him a little for that as he never really lost that loving, caring father. He grew up with the drill sergeant, never knowing what he was like before everything went bad.

"There she is." Sam pointed her out halfway down the road, smiling slightly as she still had her bear in her hands. "Dean, slow it up. Dean!" He shouted at his brother as he slammed on the brakes right in front of her, before he stormed out of the car.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Dean caught up to her, making Madison freeze on the spot as he shouted at her like a father figure. "You can't ever go off like that on your own. Do you know how many weirdoes there are out here? It's dangerous. This isn't a game, Madison. Monsters and demons aside, there's bad people in this world. You think you can handle it because you took out one shapeshifter? You're just a kid."

"Dean." Sam tried to get his brother to back off, feeling a shiver down his spine as he sounded just like their father when they were growing up.

"Get in the car." Dean ordered, making her jump as he pointed to it. "Now!"

Madison didn't dare defy his order.

She climbed straight into the back of the Impala, clutching her teddy bear tightly against her chest as Dean pushed the door shut behind her. He glared at his brother a second later, pushing past him to get back to the car, before he gave him another lecture.

Nobody dared to speak a word for the rest of the drive after Dean's outburst.

Leaving Madison in the Impala, the Winchester brothers searched the woods for the cave the locals had described as a possible hideout for their resident monster.

They took on the werewolf by themselves, piercing it's heart with a silver knife, before it did any real damage to them. They looked over one another to make sure that the other was okay, still not speaking a word as they got on with disposing the body of the werewolf in the way they were accustomed.

"You should talk to her, Dean." Sam handed a pack of matches over to his brother, letting him do the honours. "Back there, you sounded like Dad."

"You think it's okay for her to run off like that?"

"Of course not, but you don't want her to be terrified of you like we were of Dad."

Dean immediately rolled his eyes at his younger brother, wishing he would stopping bringing their old man up. "I'll talk to her later, okay? We're heading back to Bobby's after this. He might have found something new and it'd be good for her to stay in one place for a while. If she's staying with us for now, we should think about getting her into a school."

Sam smiled at his older brother, standing back as he finally flicked a match onto the wood they had piled around the werewolf's body. "You better be careful man, she's gonna be calling you Papa Dean soon. I mean, if we keep her."

His brother responded with a glare. "She's not a puppy, Sam." He stuffed the matches into his pocket, collecting up his duffel to leave. He found Madison still sat in the back of his car with her feet up on the seat, flipping through the book she had rested against her legs. "Hey," He leant against the frame of the open window. "Are you hungry?"

Madison nodded her head, ditching the book onto the seat beside her. "What are you burning?" She curiously asked him.

"The werewolf. They turn human again as soon as they're dead. You don't have to burn them, but our Dad always did. He said it's more respectful then leaving them to rot and it saves us having to come back later to deal with their angry spirit."

Dean pulled the door open, kneeling down to Madison's level.

"Listen Madi, you can't ever go off on your own like that again, okay? You can stay with us, but you're gonna have to follow my rules to stay safe. The world we live in is dangerous. Hunting is dangerous. I'm hard on you because I'm just trying to keep you safe."

Sam stood back a moment, watching his brother playfully fist bumping, Madison's little hand after their discussion. "Are we ready to go?" He finally joined them by the car.

"Yeah." His brother straightened up, dusting down the dirt from his jeans. "Let's go get something to eat." He climbed into the driver's seat, giving his brother a moment to ditch their equipment back into the trunk, before he took off towards the nearest bar with restaurant that he could find. He'd normally start the evening by canvassing the bar for a companion for the night. but he went straight in to order some food, picking a booth away from the crowds to sit down with Madison.

"All werewolves used to be human." Sam continued to answer her questions. "Or at least half human, anyway. They can be born with the blood inside them and eventually start to change, usually around the lunar cycle, but most of them have been bitten by another werewolf. They eat the hearts of people in werewolf form, but sometimes they leave their victim with a bite that can pass it on. We killed this one though, so he can't go onto hurt anybody else."

"What if he bit somebody?"

"He didn't." Dean stopped his brother from filling her in with all the gory details.

Sam waited for his older brother to leave the table to order their food, before he decided to fill Madison in on some more details.

"In werewolf form, they're easy to spot. They still look human, but they have fangs, claws and demonic yellow eyes. Unless they're pure bloods, they don't come out unless it's around the lunar cycle. If somebody was bitten, they might not even know about it until the next lunar cycle, but even then they might not know. The werewolf takes over when they change. But they're harmless in human form. Some don't even know that they're changing. It can go on for years before they finally notice."

"But you have to kill them?" Madison asked, tilting her head to the side. "Because they're bad?"

"Yeah, we stop them before they can hurt anyone else. It's not necessarily their fault that they ended up like that, but they can't control it. There's an evil thing inside of them that wants to kill, so we have to stop it." Sam slid further into the booth, letting his brother in beside him with their drinks. "What did you order for me?"

"Burgers all around." Dean slid the glass of lemonade in Madison's direction, taking his jacket off before he sat down himself. He glanced up at one of the waitresses as they walked by, staying seated rather than chasing her down for her number. He turned his attention towards Madison instead, starting to worry about her.

They had only been together for past few weeks, but he had already noticed a change in her appetite and behaviour since the death of her father. She barely spoke to him anymore, let alone gave him long lectures about what was right and wrong. He found that annoying about her when they first met, but now he wished she'd at least open her mouth to speak to him every once in a while.

She managed to eat at least half of her burger, before Sam escorted her to the ladies room. He stayed right outside the whole time with her teddy bear in his hands, spotting his brother taking a phone call out of the bar.

"Hey." Sam smiled at her as she stepped out. "You done?"

"Yeah." Madison reached for her teddy bear, following him back through the bar.

"Dean." He caught up to his brother at the Impala, just as Dean snapped his cell phone shut. "Dean, what is it?"

"That was... Dad. He's sending us on a job."

"Again." Sam looked at his brother as though he was stupid. "You can't be freaking serious! He's alive after all this time and you didn't even ask where he was?"

"I asked, Sam. He said this was more important." He handed the scribbled down co-ordinates over to his brother. "He just said that he couldn't talk long, then he gave me those co-ordinates."

"So what, is he meeting us there?"

"I don't know." Dean shrugged his shoulders. "It's a job, Sam. It must be important for Dad to send us on it. Get your stuff, we can still make it to Bobby's by the end of the night." He grabbed the sleepy child's hand from her side, quickly leading her round to the back of his car to get her inside.

Sam didn't like the idea of them running off on another wild goose chase for their father, but he didn't have much of a choice if Dean was dead set on going ahead with their father's orders. He slumped into the passenger seat, watching the road as they took off for Bobby's place.

* * *

><p>Bobby clambered out from behind his desk when he heard them arrive, making his way towards the front door as the headlights from the Impala glared through the downstairs windows of his house. He watched the boys packing up their things from the car, smiling to himself as they made their way towards him.<p>

"What?" Dean hissed at the man, wanting to know what was so funny.

"You chuckle heads look like a couple of babysitters in over their heads." The man smirked, watching Dean carrying the child inside his house, while Sam had her pink backpack in one hand and her teddy bear in the other. "Sofa . . . in there." He directed them through, handing Dean a blanket as soon as he had laid down the sleeping child on the sofa that had seen better days. "So, this is Taylor's kid?"

"Madi." Sam tucked her teddy bear under her arm, setting her bag down at her feet. "Dean wants to ditch her with you."

"It's dangerous, Sam." Dean continued their earlier argument. "Her father's not around to protect her anymore. We could at least do right by her. This job Dad's sending us on could be dangerous. I can't bring her into that. She's just a kid. She'll be safer with Bobby. He kept us safe when we were kids. Dad would never bring us along on something like this when we were kids. He protected us from that and we can protect Madi too."

"John?" Bobby turned to look at Dean behind him. "He's been in contact with you?"

"Yeah, with some co-ordinates." Pulling the piece of paper with them on from his pocket, Sam handed them over to Bobby, so he could find out where they were for them. "Are you sure he didn't say anything else to you? Like where he is, where he's been all this time or the point in all of this?"

"No, Sam." Dean glared at his younger brother. "Like I said, he gave me the co-ordinates and said it was an order. He's our father, Sam, you may not respect the man, but I do. So just drop it, okay? I'm sick of always fighting with you, we're beginning to sound like an old married couple arguing over how to raise a kid."

Sam sighed heavily, dropping into a chair around Bobby's table.

"I still don't understand you, Dean. The whole point in me joining you was because Dad went missing. Why should we keep going off on these wild goose chases, just because Dad gave them to you. Bobby must know tons of other hunters. We can give them the case and go after Dad, like we've been trying to do all along. This isn't just his fight anymore. The demon that killed Mom, came back and killed, Jess. We should be with him in this."

"Dad gave us an order, Sam."

"Hey," Bobby called out to them from behind his desk. "When you girls are done fighting, you wonna come over here?" He straightened out the map as much as he could, pointing to Colorado. "This is where John's co-ordinates lead to." He tapped the area on the map. "I just read a newspaper report from that area." He searched his desk for the clipping, handing it over to the boys to read. "Here."

"Local man was found mauled in his home. No sign of forced entry." Sam read the first line out loud, watching his brother suddenly running for his bag. "Dean, what are you looking for?"

"Keep reading."

"Sounds like the police investigating the mysterious death don't know what to think." Sam continued reading. "They managed to rule out a bear attack, since there are signs of a robbery, but they still have no idea what could have mauled the victim, draining him of all his blood."

"Got it." Dean handed his father's journal over to Bobby. "Dad marked the area down as a possible vampire feeding grounds. There's four or five attacks a year that make it into the papers, but there's a ton of missing people. Hunters have gone through there before, but never came up with anything. They cover their tracks well."

"Vampires?" Bobby took a look at the research himself. "I heard they were extinct."

"Dad thought the same thing when we were looking for the Colt." Sam informed him. "They're not extinct, just lying low. So Dad's sending us after more of them? Why doesn't he just do it himself? Dean, where are you going?" He shouted after him as his brother decided to walk away rather than to fight about things anymore.

"I'm going to Colorado, Sam. Dad sent us this job for a reason. You don't wonna come, that's fine, but I'm going." Dean leant over the desk, grabbing his father's journal back from Bobby's hands. "Take care of Madison for us, we'll be back for her."

"Dean!" His younger brother gave out a heavy sigh, before he followed him out to the Impala. He didn't want his brother to get himself killed on another reckless solo mission that their father was sending them on, so he decided it would be safer if they were together. "Dean, wait up."

"Sam, don't even bother coming if you're just gonna lecture me."

"I'm not. I'm going along with you to watch your back. I still want to find Dad, but this is all we've got for now. This demon that Dad's hunting took out our Mom and Jess. He wants to deal with this thing without us because he thinks that it's his mission, but it's not. It affected all of us. You're my brother and I'm not gonna abandon you like Dad did. Besides, Madison is going to need both of us around if she's going to survive in this world. Do you want her to grow up the same way we did? Terrified that Dad wasn't going to come back for us?"

Dean shook his head at his brother. "I knew he always would. He may not have always done the right thing for us Sam, but he was our father and he was trying to keep us safe. He was dealing with the demons and crap that we have to deal with as best he could with two kids at his side."

"I know, but that's no excuse for disappearing on us, leaving us to deal with all of this on our own. He didn't even call back after you were dying, Dean. It's like he just doesn't care anymore. His need for vengeance has him blinded and you're willing to follow everything he tells you, just because he says it's an order. He still treats us like we're just kids, keeping us on a crap need to know basis. If he wants to send us on a job, he should tell us what it is, rather than giving us co-ordinates and saying it's an order."

"Hunting is our job, Sam. If you don't want to come, don't." Dean finally climbed into the Impala, sighing as his brother climbed into the other side.

"We're not kids anymore, Dean. We've been through a hell of a lot this year and Dad was nowhere to be seen. If he really cared about us, he would have been with us this year, helping us, rather than sending us cryptic messages."

"That's just the way he works." Dean dismissed it.

"That's crap, Dean. And you know it."

Bobby watched from the front window as the Winchester brothers stayed put for at least five minutes, arguing about their father's orders in the front of the Impala. He knew that John Winchester brought that out in a lot of people, as he had his own run in with the man a few years back, but he wouldn't expect his own sons to fight about a hunt like this.

* * *

><p><strong>Thank you for reading, please let me know what you think so far.<strong>

**~ Holly**


	4. Chapter Three: Dangerous Times

**Chapter Three - Dangerous Times**

Resting against her elbow on Bobby's dining table, Madison watched as the man spooned out the beans from the can into a bowl, setting it down in front of her. He poked through the dirty dishes piled in his sink, finding a decent enough fork. He gave it a quick wipe with the hem of his lumberjack shirt, before he handed it over to the child sat at his table. "You better eat up before they get cold. That's as good as it gets around here." He grabbed his beer from the middle of the table, returning to his desk in the next room.

The Winchester brothers had been away in Colorado on a hunt their father sent them on for the past few weeks. Sam called to tell Bobby that they had arrived, keeping him informed on their progress. It took them a little longer than expected to find the actual vampire nest, but as soon as they took out one, they discovered that they had several hideouts all over the town.

"Hey." Bobby knocked his fist against the desk, waiting for Madison to lift her head. "That food isn't gonna get eaten by itself. Get moving."

"I'm not hungry." Madison dropped the fork from her hands, sliding down from the table. She made her way back to the sofa that had been her bed for the past few days, clutching her teddy bear against her chest as she watched Bobby getting on with some research.

He glanced up as he felt her eyes on him, beginning to feel a little paranoid as she continued to stare.

"If you're not gonna eat, why don't you try sleeping?"

"I'm not tired." She shook her head from side to side. "What are you reading?"

"C'mere," He ushered her towards his desk, sliding the book towards her. "Can you read?" She nodded her head, taking hold of the corners of the book. "Keep reading through that for me, tell me if you find any reference to vampires. V-a-m-p..."

"I know how to spell it." The child cut him off. "Why are you looking for vampires?"

"I've got reports of their numbers increasing all over the place. I just want to make sure it's not apocalypse stuff." Bobby grabbed another open book for himself, skim reading through the pages in front of him. He checked on the child beside him after a few minutes, smiling as she reminded him of a young Sam. "Did your Daddy ever tell you about vampires?"

Madison shook her head, flipping the page of the book she had in front of her. "Sam did. He's told me lots of stuff. He told me a yellow eyed demon killed his Mom, and that's why they hunt. Daddy never told me what killed my Mom. But he only became a hunter after she died." She held the book out to Bobby, pointing to the paragraph about vampire leaders that she had found. "Why did you become a hunter?"

"That's a long story, kiddo." Bobby noticed her sighing a second later, deciding to give her a few details. "My wife, Karen... she was possessed by a demon. I didn't know what they were at the time. A hunter name of Rufus Turner, exorcised the demon. But it was too late, my wife was dead. He introduced me to this world and I haven't been able to get away from it ever since. I met the Winchester boys through their Daddy. He came by from the Roadhouse, looking for information on demons. I don't hunt much anymore, but I help out other hunters where I can. I met your Daddy six or seven years ago, when he came across his first demon possession. You were barely walking at the time. Your Daddy took you everywhere with him back then."

"He did?" Madison leant against the man's desk, watching him searching for another volume in the clutter. "Do you know what killed my Mom?"

Bobby pursed his lips together, giving her a slight nod. "Yeah . . . your Daddy mentioned it."

"What was it?" She brushed her hair from her face, giving the man a curious look. "Did he kill it?"

"Hunters aren't the forgiving kind when it comes to their family. You can guarantee your Daddy put that sucker six feet in the ground." Bobby gave her a slight smile, noticing the teddy bear still tucked under her name. "Does that bear of yours have a name?"

"George."

"George, huh. You know if you're gonna be a hunter like Dean and Sam, you're gonna need to leave George behind. Can't hold a weapon with George in your arms."

Madison turned her bear over, showing him the hidden zipper in the back. She pulled the zipper open, revealing the hidden switch blade in the stuffing.

"Nice." He smiled at her. "You better keep George around then. He might come in handy someday." Bobby turned back to his books, feeling her eyes still burning into him. "I don't know exactly what got to your mother, but your Daddy started hunting anything he could, everywhere he could. Just trying to get revenge for your Mom."

"Now that Dean and Sam have found their Daddy, will they come back?"

Bobby glanced up at her, nodding his head. "Count on it. John loves those boys, but he's not the type to stick around. He's a solo type hunter. Seen a lot of them over the years..." He paused hearing a scuffling noise coming from outside. "Shotgun, under the sofa." He motioned her towards it, pulling a knife out from between his books.

Madison quickly fetched the shotgun, handing it over to Bobby after he turned out the lights. She watched him patrolling from one window to the next, anxiously checking every angle he could to find whatever was trying to sneak up on them.

"Stay quiet . . . not a sound." He warned her.

He stepped out into the hallway to check the door, clenching his teeth together as the floorboards creaked beneath his feet. He glanced back to check on Madison, before he cautiously took a step closer to the front door.

He couldn't see anything outside, but he heard another scuffling sound, prompting him to take a look out there from the porch. He couldn't see anything in the dark, but nothing came running at him, so he figured it was just a rodent or something.

He lowered the shotgun to his side, returning to the house. He stopped dead in his tracks, raising the gun from his side to the shadow approaching his back door. He gulped as he saw a second and a third, quickly ushering Madison towards him.

"Run... Don't look back, just keep going." He gave her a gentle push out the door behind him, greeting the vampires invading his house with a buckshot each to the chest.

The child stumbled down the steps to his house, looking left then right, before she took off through the piles of old cars. She heard shots behind her, but she kept on running through the cold, dark night, following the maze created through the rusty piles of scrap with George tucked safely under her arm.

Madison stopped against the back of a truck about halfway down the lot, trying to slow her breathing as she heard voices. She couldn't pinpoint where they were coming from, so she dropped to the dirt, quickly commando crawling under the truck before they found her. The soil beneath the car was still soggy from last night's rain and it stunk of petrol fumes, but she had to try and stay quiet. She held her breath as they approached, watching out the side of the truck as two vampires walked by, searching for her in the wreckages.

The two of them slowly walked around the outside of the truck, stopping to look around for a moment, before they split up to cover more ground.

Madison waited until she couldn't hear their footsteps anymore, before she crawled out the other side of the truck. Her sneakers crunched through the dead leaves as she clambered to her feet, but there was no sign of the monsters chasing her.

She wanted to run back to the house, but she could hear the sound of an engine pulling up behind her. She took off running for the fence surrounding Bobby's property, following it round until she found a gap that she could squeeze through.

A vampire caught her leg as she tried to crawl through it, pulling her back into the salvage yard. She kicked at it with her other leg, but the monster inside the woman was too strong. It dragged her back through the hole in the fence, ripping her jeans against the sharp edges at the bottom in the process.

"Let her go!" A familiar voice ordered.

The vampire spun round, holding Madison by the throat as it looked down the barrel of the Winchester's gun. "Dean, you know that won't kill me."

"No, but it'll hurt like hell." He pulled the trigger, blasting a hole in the vampire's shoulder.

Madi crawled out the way as soon as she was free, covering her arm over her eyes as Sam jumped the vampire from behind, hacking it's head off with his razor sharp machete. She caught the blood squirting out from its limp body as she scrambled to her feet.

"Hey, are you okay?" Dean knelt down to her level, dusting down the dirt from her clothes. He found a fresh graze on her knee and a slight cut to her leg from the fence, but nothing that was life threatening.

"Madi." Sam retrieved her teddy bear from the dirt, placing it in her hands. "Where's Bobby?"

"The house. There were three vampires." She quickly warned them.

"Which means two more." Sam wiped the blood from his knife onto his jeans, taking his brother's shotgun from him, so he had his hands free to lift Madison into his arms. "Have you got a plan?"

"Yeah, we take out these ugly sons of bitches and save the day." Dean grinned at his younger brother, holding Madison securely against his side as they made their way back to Bobby's house in the middle of his salvage yard. He set her down on the porch, peering in through the window. He gave a signal to his brother, letting him take the lead into the house, while he tried to protect the child at his side.

One of the vampires was stood guarding an unconscious, Bobby in the front room, but the other one was nowhere to be seen. The Winchester brothers gave one another one of their usual signals, before they both jumped the vampire guarding, Bobby. He was a big guy, but they managed to knock him down together, giving Sam the chance to chop off his head.

"I'll check the back. Stay with Bobby." Sam wiped the blood from his chin onto his sleeve, leaving his brother to check on Bobby.

"Hey... Bobby," Dean rolled him over, pulling the shotgun out from under him. "Bobby, wake up." He gently tapped his hand across his face, until he started to open his eyes. "Hey, you alright, man?"

"V-ampires." The man choked, wiping the blood from his head. "Madi ran out. Three of em. I pumped one of em full of buckshots."

"We're on it, Bobby." He helped the man to his feet, easing him over to the sofa to sit down. "They were pretty pissed that we took out their nest back in Colorado. I saved Sam after they tossed our motel room. He heard them talking about your salvage yard. They must have heard us on the phone to you, figured you were the one who told us about their nests and came looking."

"How about calling for a heads up?" Bobby growled at him.

"Sorry Bobby, they didn't have much of a heads start, so we figured we could catch them before they got to you. They took out our phones back at the motel, vultures tore up everything we had. I managed to save this." He showed him his father's journal tucked into his jacket. He glanced up as Sam returned, nodding his head after taking out the third vampire out the back. "Madi, c'mere..." He lifted her onto the sofa beside Bobby, pulling out the first aid kit from its usual spot.

"It doesn't hurt." Madison assured him, but he wanted to check the cut out himself.

"This will a little." Dean shook up the disinfectant, searching for a cotton wool bud in the kit.

Bobby had patched up both of them from multiple injuries over the years, more times than he could remember. He used to be squeamish of blood, but he learned to stitch, remove bullets and patch up stab wounds over the years since he had become a hunter.

Watching Dean patching up the little girl beside him, Bobby could swear he was watching a father tending to his own flesh and blood, daughter. He could see now why they didn't want to leave her somewhere that she would be safe. They had taken it upon themselves to become her protectors, everything that she lost when she lost her father.

"Sorry, sorry..." Dean gently dabbed the cut to her leg, cringing every time he hurt her a little more. "I don't think it needs a bandage, but we're gonna have to get you some new jeans. These ones are toast."

"Eh, Dean." Bobby tried to get his attention. "Can I have a band-aid?" He motioned towards the cut to his head. "You know, unless you're too busy. I can wait."

Dean rolled his eyes, before he tended to the minor cut to Bobby's head. He didn't need a bandage either, but Sam got him some ice to help with the swelling after his brother had cleared up the blood.

"Do you think we got the last of them?" Dean asked his younger brother, tossing aside the blood covered cotton buds into the trash. "Are those three the only ones you saw?"

"I was kinda out of it, Dean." Sam rubbed the bruise to his chin, looking out at the bodies he had dragged outside. "I recognise those two. The woman... I'm not so sure. I don't think we should stay here tonight. If there are any more of them, this is the first place they'll look for us."

"Agreed." Dean pushed himself to his feet, grabbing his favourite gun from where he left it. He tucked it into the waistband of his jeans, grabbing his duffel off the floor. "We'll pack up some things and head to a motel or something. Bobby, you're coming with us. No arguments, they almost killed you."

"I'm not leaving my house because of you idgits. I've got an arsenal in here."

"One night away won't do any harm." Dean insisted, packing Madison's things into her backpack.

He lifted the child onto his hip, taking her out to the car, while his brother helped Bobby to reluctantly pack up a few things for the night. He dragged his heels as much as he could, refusing to leave behind certain things, before he finally climbed into the back of the Impala with Madison.

"Buckle up, kids." Dean decided to add a little more insult to his situation.

"You realise they can still track us." Bobby decided to inform them, at least half an hour after they left his salvage yard behind. "Once a vampire gets your scent locked in, there's no escaping them. Noses like a blood hound."

"Here, dust your clothes with this." Sam passed him a satchel full of ashes.

"One of Dad's tricks." Dean filled him in, smiling as he watched the man cringing from the scent of it. "Blocks your scent from vampires. Trust us, okay Bobby. They can't track us with this stuff stinking up your clothes."

"Do you really think that this is the life your recently adopted child should be around?" Bobby took his chance to ask them, since the child in question was old cold on the back seat beside him, with her thumb in her mouth and her favourite teddy bear tucked under her arm. "I know you mean well boys, but did you ever stop and think about what's best for her? I think it's real noble that you're taking care of Madison now that her father's not around, but have you thought about anything long term? You boys spend all your time on the road, going after monsters. You gotta know that it's not safe. You went through it yourself with your own Daddy."

"Our Dad kept us safe." Dean pointed out to him.

"We're not gonna raise her like that." His younger brother added, surprising both of them. "C'mon, we can't just ditch her somewhere now, Dean. She's not gonna trust anyone else. She trusts us."

"You want to raise her?" Dean almost veered the car off the road from the shock. He thought that maybe his younger brother was joking for a second, but then he realised that he was in fact serious about the insane idea. "Me and you, raising a kid?"

"Yeah, Dean. It's not so crazy."

"The hell it is." Bobby piped in from the back seat, keeping his voice down so he didn't wake up Madison beside him. "You can't just wake up one day and decide to adopt a little orphan, especially not in your line of work. You boys can barely look after each other, let alone a little girl. You're in way over your heads on this one, boys."

The Winchester brothers remained silent, feeling a little hurt by the man's words. They thought they had done a pretty good job at taking care of each other over the years, but their biggest critic was the man who had been like a second father to them.

The next morning, Madison woke up with her face pressed against a soft white pillow. She could see another bed just a few feet in front of hers with Dean fast asleep under the covers. She spotted the ivory handle of his gun beneath his pillow, along with the handle of his knife sticking out the side of the mattress. She cast her eyes towards the other side of the room, seeing Bobby crashed out on the sofa. He didn't look very comfortable, but he too had a knife stashed under his pillow.

She rolled herself over onto her back, looking at Sam sat at the little round table in the kitchen with a laptop open in front of him. He looked a little sleepy, but he managed to keep his head propped up with elbow against the table, researching away to try and find anything related to vampire attacks.

Grabbing her teddy bear from beside her, Madison slid out from under the covers, slowly padding across the floor towards, Sam. "Morning." He rubbed the sleep from his eyes, smiling at her as she did the same. "Your pigtails all messed up." He ushered her closer, gently tugging the hair tie out of the birds nest on her head. "We'll have to get you a hairbrush. Unless you think we should shave it all off?"

"No." She squirmed out of his reach as he pretended to cut her hair with his fingers. "Did the vampires come back?"

"No, they're gone." Sam closed the laptop in front of him. "Do you want some breakfast?"

Madison quickly nodded her head, taking a step back as Sam climbed to his feet. She followed him across the cold kitchen floor, seeing beers and day old pizza inside the fridge, but nothing she really wanted to eat. "Don't you have any cereal?"

"No... but I can go and get some." He grabbed his jacket from the back of the chair, searching the pockets for his money. He found his empty money clip, realising they spent the last of their cash to top up the Impala's gas tank. He made his way over to Dean's bed, grabbing his brother's jacket off the end of the bed to search for any spare change that he had. "I'll be back in a few minutes. Stay in here."

Madison nodded, climbing back onto her bed. She waved to Sam as he left their motel room, hoping he'd come back soon with lots of food. She stayed put on her bed for a few minutes, before she spied the duffel bag across the room full of weapons. Sliding off the bed, Madison grabbed the handle to the knife that Sam had given her the other day, examining it for a moment.

When her father went out on a hunt, he'd always leave salt at the windows and a loaded shotgun somewhere that she could reach it. He left her with other hunters if he was gone for more than a day, but he always came back in the end. He taught her how to shoot and load guns when he was around, but she never fired one at anything other than soda cans until the shapeshifter a few weeks ago. He didn't teach her anything with knifes, but Sam and Dean were always carrying one.

Sam returned to the motel room a few minutes later, rushing to close the laptop that Madison was sat in front of. She quickly moved her hands away before they got shut inside, giving the man an innocent smile as she leant back in her seat. "I didn't read anything."

"Oh really?" Sam raised his eyebrows, doubting her the second he saw her smile. "I got you some bagels." He set the bag on the table, clearing away his laptop before she read anything else she wasn't supposed to.

"What are bagels?" Madison leant forwards, watching him unpacking the groceries from his bag.

"They're really good. A lot better than day old pizza." He assured her, setting her up with one. He took a seat beside her with his own, letting her take the first bite. "It's good, right?"

The child shrugged her shoulders, brushing her hair from her face. "Sam, where's your Daddy?"

"He's out hunting somewhere. Never tells us where, just sends us off on hunts that he's too busy to deal with." He grabbed for one of the coffees he had bought, taking the plastic lid off to drink it. "He's been hunting the demon that killed our Mom his whole life. It's a really powerful demon and he's looking to kill it, rather than just exorcising it back to hell. Bobby doesn't know of any way to kill a demon, but our Dad thinks he knows a way. I just wish he'd let us help him."

"When you kill the demon that killed your Mom, what will you do then?" She curiously asked him, receiving a shrug in response. "I think you should get married."

"Oh really?" Sam smiled at her, resting against his elbow on the table. "Who will look after my brother if I got married?" He asked her, looking at his brother peacefully sleeping in front of them. "Dean doesn't like being by himself. He's been trying to keep our family together since he was just a kid. He's always wanted a real family of his own, but living this life kinda prevents anything like that."

"We can be a family." Madison declared, getting a smile out of Sam.

"You really think so?"

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><p><strong>Thank you for reading, please review!<strong>

**~ Holly**


	5. Chapter Four: Real Monsters

**Chapter Four - Real Monsters**

"Man, I hate the suburbs." Returning to the park bench with a bag full of food, Dean dropped to the bench beside his younger brother, handing him one of the greasy burger bags. "I had to drive right out of town just to get some decent food."

"You call this decent? You're gonna kill yourself on this stuff someday." Sam ditched the greasy bag on the bench beside him, turning the laptop on his lap to face his brother. "Here, look at this. Third suspicious death this month. Just like the other two, the victim was all alone in their locked house. No sign of break in. Coroners had to scrape this last one off his kitchen ceiling."

"Why?" Dean frowned, stuffing another mouthful of burger into his mouth, slopping the special barbeque sauce down his chin.

"Get this, they think his kitchen ceiling fan did it. Sucked him right up. Dude." Sam frowned at his older brother. "Get a freaking napkin or something."

Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, Dean read through the rest of the report, trying to figure out what they were dealing with. "How'd the first two die again?"

"Uh, first one," Sam brought up the other two reports. "Single Mom in her late thirties, fell down the stairs, completely shredded by some kind of animal. They think it broke into her house and she slipped trying to get away from it. Second one boiled alive in his own bath tub after he was slaughtered in his locked bathroom. His insides practically liquefied."

"Dude, I'm eating." Dean motioned to his half eaten burger, trying to put the image out of his head, before he took another bite. "How do we know this isn't just the run of the mill household accidents? Might not be our thing."

"Dean, this is exactly our kind of thing. People don't get sucked up into their ceiling fan. The blades didn't even break. This report said it wasn't even one of those metal ones. Plus the locked doors. This doesn't happen in the real world." He closed his laptop, stuffing it into his brown leather bag beside him. "Shall we get the suits? We can stop by the victims houses, look around for the usual stuff."

"What about..." Dean searched the playground in front of them, quickly scanning each of the children's faces, until he spotted the one he was looking for. She had climbed halfway up the dome like frame, looking like a real kid for the first time in weeks. "What are we gonna tell them, it's a bring your kid to work day?"

"She can sit the car." Sam climbed to his feet, pulling his bag on over his shoulder. "C'mon Dean, while we're young."

"Keep your panties on, Sammy." Dean looked at the rest of the food he had bought, giving out a sigh as he packed it all up. He snatched up Sam's uneaten burger, stuffing it into the bag for later, before he hurried over to the climbing dome. "Madi, c'mon. It's time to go."

"Is that your Dad?" One of the other kids asked her as she slipped through the bars of the climbing frame, dropping to the tarmac in the middle. She climbed through the side next to Dean, waving to the other girl as they made their way out of the park.

"Who's that?" Dean asked her, leading the way back to his car.

"Chloe." Madison skipped on ahead, climbing into the back of the Impala. She picked up her teddy bear off her stuff, holding him tightly as the Winchester brothers climbed into the front. "Where are we going?"

"We're working a case here actually." Sam stuffed his bag into the back by her feet. "We can hit the last house first." He retrieved the map of the local area that he nabbed on their arrival. "Looks like they're all pretty close together. Might be something working in one area. Let's find a motel to change."

"Hey," Dean spotted something in the distance. "I got a better idea."

Sam followed his brother's gaze, spotting a real estate sign. He didn't know what his brother had planned, but he knew they'd never be able to afford anything in this neighbourhood. Not even with their fake credit cards. He decided not to argue as he drove them through the local neighbourhood, but he couldn't help it when his brother pulled into the driveway of a house up for sale.

"You can't be serious, Dean."

"What, we're only gonna be here for a few days. We can squat in a flash house for a change." Dean motioned towards the garage door, giving his younger brother a glare, until he got the message. He reluctantly climbed out the car, pulling the garage door open, so Dean could hide the Impala inside. "I know for a fact that the realtor happens to be dead, so no one will found out. Chill out, little brother." He gave him a reassuring smile as he climbed out the car. "C'mon Madi, grab your stuff."

Madison grabbed her bag, sliding out of the car. She followed Sam towards the back door in the garage, watching him picking the lock open, before they could make their way inside. The first room they entered was a large utility room, complete with a washer, dryer and ironing board. The next room was a large family sized kitchen with an island in the middle, a huge fridge, freezer and an expensive looking coffee maker.

"Wow." Dean set his duffel on the floor, going straight for the fridge. He sighed as it was empty, feeling his stomach still rumbling with hunger after his interrupted lunch.

Leaving Sam and Dean in the kitchen, Madison made her way through to the large family dining room that opened up into a living room with a huge L shaped sofa, spreading from one corner of the room to the other. She turned for the stairs, extending her hand up to the banister to make her way up to the second floor. She found a master bedroom in the first room with a huge double bed, walk in wardrobe and a bathroom with the biggest Jacuzzi sized bath tub she had ever seen.

Making her way across the hall, Madison found a guest bedroom and two children's sized rooms. They were furnished with the most basic things, but it felt more like a home than any motel room ever had. She dropped her bag in one of the child's sized bedrooms, brushing her fingertips across the smooth wooden surface of the pine desk.

"Hey." Dean appeared at the bedroom door. "We're gonna head out to inspect the first house. Don't answer the door. Stay hidden if anyone looks in through the windows. My duffels in the kitchen for salt and that." He knelt down in front of her, pulling his favourite gun out of his waistband. "It's fully loaded. Aim for the head or heart . . . either one of those are usually the weak spot in monsters. You know how to use it?"

Madison nodded her head slightly, wishing he didn't have to go. He set the gun on her desk as he left the room, barking orders at his younger brother to hurry up, before the two of them left the house in the only suit they had ever owned and their fake ID badges.

She watched them leaving from her window, before she made her way through to the master bathroom. She fiddled with the controls of the Jacuzzi tub for a little while, curious to know what all the little buttons and knobs did, before she took her first bath in weeks. She found pristine white fluffy towels in the closet that weren't itchy or had weird stains on them like in the motel rooms they had stayed at, along with warm bath robes fit for a king.

They were adult sized, but she wrapped herself in the warm fabric, crashing against the large sofa to watch some cartoons. The picture quality on the large television was much better than Bobby's old box and it had proper sound without the annoying crackling in the background.

An hour or so later, she stuffed all of her clothes in the washer, guessing which buttons to press and how much powder to put in. They came out dripping wet, but they smelled like lavender, rather than blood, dirt and motor fumes. She threw them in the dryer next, hearing a loud bang coming from outside.

Grabbing Dean's gun off the side, Madison held it out in front of her, cautiously approaching the sliding glass door in the dining room. She looked out into the garden for the first time, noticing a swing set and a trampoline, but nothing that could have banged against the window. She lowered the gun to her side, spotting a dead bird on the patio, right outside the door.

Madison returned to the dryer, grabbing herself some clothes to wear, before she went outside to bury the little bird in one of the flower beds. She found a shovel in the garden shed, along with a rock to mark its grave.

"Bye, little bird." She turned away from his grave, making her way over to the trampoline at the end of the garden.

It had a few dead leaves scattered over it, but it looked safe enough to climb onto. She cautiously made her way to the middle, testing the squeaky springs, before she felt satisfied enough to bounce a little higher, peering into the back yards of their neighbours. She could see a lot of manicured lawns, flowerbeds full of perfectly trimmed flowers and pristine garden furniture for entertaining guests. She spotted a kids birthday party a few houses over, watching a mother carrying a huge birthday cake over to one of the little girls.

They sang happy birthday to her, helping themselves to a piece of cake each, before they got back to playing party games for hours on end. They weren't troubled by the world around them or the monsters that were lurking in the shadows, making her envy them a little.

"Madison!" Sam called out the back door to her, ushering her inside as she looked in his direction. "I gotcha some food." He set down the various little boxes on the table. "Have you seen my laptop?"

"In the front room. On the coffee table." Madison climbed into a seat at the dining table, giving him a guilty smile as he retrieved it from where she left it. "Where's Dean?"

"Coroner's office." Sam took a seat in front of her, checking his browser history before anything else, trying to see what she had been looking at. "Wyoming newspaper reports from eight years ago?" He glanced over his laptop, looking at the little girl in front of him. "What exactly are you looking for, Madi?"

"The thing that killed my Mom. My Dad never told me. Bobby wouldn't either, so I tried to find out myself."

"Your Dad never told you what?" He found that a little surprising as most hunters were always going on about the thing that got them started in this business. He knew several hunters that had a severe hatred for vampires because of what they did to their families. They wouldn't take on a job, unless they were sure that a vampire was involved. "Tell you what, you help me out with this case that we're working now and I'll help you find what killed your Mom as soon as we're done."

"Okay." Madison slid out of her seat, joining him round the other side of the table. "What did you get from the crime scene?" She queried, watching him retrieving a little tweed bag from his top pocket. "A hex bag?"

"Yeah." He smiled at her as she actually knew what it was. "We think we're looking for a witch that's summoning something or doing something to these people, but we don't know who it is." He unravelled it on the table, showing her what was inside. "It could be anyone, since most witches are human. We have to find someone that could have a grudge against the victims or someone that they all have in common."

"Don't you think hunters would make really good police investigators?" She suddenly asked him. "You'd actually get paid to do this then."

"We wouldn't be able to do half the stuff we do if we were though. In the human world, there's too many laws and rules that are there to try and protect people. We wouldn't be able to carry our weapons, dig up graves, burn bones... half the stuff we do to try and save people, because it's all against the law and they wouldn't understand it. It's why we have to live like this and operate under the radar. If anyone in law enforcement knew what we were doing, we'd be behind bars for life. Here we go..." Sam turned his attention back to the computer in front of him, finding something all the victims had in common. "Once upon a time, all our victims went to college together. They made the papers."

"What for?" Madison leant against his side, watching him reading through the newspaper report.

"Green peace. They set fire to a lab on their school campus. Only one person died."

"Do witches come back to life?" Madison gave him a curious look as he started searching for something else. "You said that most witches are human and humans come back as ghosts, maybe it's a ghost witch."

"A ghost witch?" He raised an eyebrow in her direction, thinking that was something Dean would come up with. "I suppose it's not totally crazy." He reached for his phone as his brother called him back after stopping by the coroner's office. "Hey, what'd you find out? Yeah..." He took the call into the other room, leaving Madison with his open laptop.

Taking a seat on Sam's chair, Madison read through the report on the fire for herself, reading through a passage that he missed about the suspected arsonist. "Sam..." She caught his attention when he returned. "What's a... arsonist?"

"Uh... someone that starts fires." He searched through his bag, pulling out a knife to stuff into his belt. "Why?"

Leaning forwards, Madison clicked on the link beneath the arsonist's name, bringing her to another page. "The original suspected arsonist died in a fire this year." She reported, resting against her elbow on the table. She stayed seated as Sam leant over her shoulder, taking a look for himself.

"It says they think he committed suicide. He can't be our ghost. Ghosts are usually created from violent deaths. This case we're working is the vengeful spirit kind." Sam grabbed his suit jacket off the back of the chair, closing his laptop, before the child read anymore. "I'm going to meet Dean at one of the victims houses. Finish your food then get some sleep." He instructed her, searching his pockets for his fake ID badge.

"But he died in a fire." Madison hurried after him, blocking his exit out the back door. "The one from college died in a fire."

"Yeah, but these three new ones didn't die in fires. They were killed in locked houses or locked rooms, by themselves. Ghosts don't change their MO." He pointed out to her, gently pushing her out of the way. "Finish your food then get some sleep. I'll be back later."

Madison gave out a soft sigh, returning to her seat as Sam left the house they were squatting in.

Although she was annoyed about not being included in the hunt or listened to during the research process of their case, Madison did as he instructed, finishing off the rest of her food, before she climbed into the comfy bed upstairs. She listened to the wind whistling through the cracks in her window, clutching her covers tightly as the closet door across the room gave out a screeching creak.

She reached her hand beneath her pillow for the knife that she usually kept there, but she hadn't unpacked it from her bag yet. She searched her covers for her teddy bear, George, but he was still downstairs on the sofa and Dean's gun was still in the utility room.

Madison took in a few deep breaths, looking at the light switch on the wall. It seemed so far away, so out of reach and she was the only one home.

* * *

><p>"A ghost witch? Did you just make that up?" Searching behind the fridge, Dean smiled as he found the hex bag first. "So, all these people went to college together, started a fire while they were in green peace and you think that a ghost witch is targeting them?" He held up the hex bag to his brother, giving him a grin as he found it before he did. "Any suspects?"<p>

Sam sighed, snatching the hex bag from Dean's hand. "No, not really. One person died in the fire. And last year the suspected arsonist committed suicide."

"How?"

"I dunno. Fire or something." Sam shrugged his shoulders, handing his brother his flashlight, while he opened up the hex bag on the counter to see what was inside. "All of these things are the normal kinda crap you find in a hex bag, but this..." He held up the shiny silver object with parts of a letter engraved into it. "I couldn't find this anywhere or the symbol, since it's only a small part of it. But it looks like it's been broken off of something."

"Where's the other two hex bags?" Dean waited for his brother to retrieve them from his jacket, before he opened them up. He took out the other halves of the shiny object, fixing them together like pieces of a puzzle. "Ghosts attach themselves to personal objects or something that has their blood or DNA on it, right?"

"Yeah... why?"

"Your ghost witch theory might be right. I've seen this before." He brushed his thumb across the tiny shiny halves of the unusual looking coin, trying to remember where he had seen it. "Oh... when we were talking to that hot tub dead guys wife, she had that old painting of her..."

"Grandmother." Sam remembered, directing the light of the flashlight over the broken pieces of the coin. "I'm surprised you remember something like that. I didn't think you pay attention to stuff like that." He teased his brother. "But that would mean that she killed her own husband. You think she's using her mother's ghost in some sort of summoning spell? If you're right, then she only has one piece of the coin left."

"Yeah, so who's she saving the last piece for." Dean scooped up the pieces of the coin, stuffing them into his top pocket for later. "All the demons and monsters we've already got in this world, now we have to deal with these freaking witches." He complained, grabbing his shotgun off the counter. "Hey eh, did you get a name on whoever died in that lab fire?"

"Adam... something." His younger brother shrugged. "What?"

"Since when do you slack on research?" Dean sighed, turning for the door. "You better hope she hasn't already killed her fourth victim, Sammy." He gave him a look of disappoint, not knowing that his mind was a little preoccupied at the time. "I'm gonna head straight over hers, see if I can find the witch and stop her before she has a chance to cast this last hex. You head back to the house and find out why she's even going after these people."

"Who died and made you the boss? Why do I have to do the research?"

"Because I'm the oldest and what I say goes." Dean used his usual argument, giving his younger brother a smile as he climbed into the car. "See yah, Sammy."

"Dean... how am I supposed to..." He watched his brother driving away in the Impala, giving out a weary sigh as he left him stranded. He should have been used to his big brother by now, but he was fooled was by his older sibling protectiveness time and time again. "Jerk." He muttered, reluctantly walking back to the house.

When he reached their block of houses, he saw all the lights were out on the neighbours houses, but the one they were staying in was brightly lit with every light in the house. He hurried in through the back before anyone noticed, turning off the lights in the kitchen and dining room, before he bumped into Madison sitting at the bottom of the stairs.

"Madi..." Sam ditched his bag, kneeling down in front of her. "Madi, why are all the lights on?"

"There's a monster in my closet." She whispered, clutching her teddy bear tightly in her arms.

"A monster?" If this were any other child, he'd believe they were just scared of the dark, but this child had seen what was in the dark. "Do you want me to take a look?" He reached for his bag behind him, pulling out his gun. He pulled back the slide, loading a bullet into the chamber, before he led the way upstairs to her room. It was the only room in the house that was in total darkness, making it even more eerie.

Sam pointed the gun out in front of him, taking a small step into the room. He looked around the darkness for any unusual shadows or anything that didn't belong, before he turned his head to the side to look for a light switch.

The second he turned his head away from the darkness of the room, he felt a sudden rush of cold air. He searched the wall with his hand for the light switch, flinching as the bulb exploded as soon as he clicked the switch. It could have just been a dodgy bulb, but the ghostly screech he heard coming from the shadows was not.

"Okay, Madison..." He glanced over his shoulder at her. "Go downstairs. I'm right behind you."

The darkness suddenly lunged out at Sam, throwing him back against the wall behind him.

"Sam!"

"Go." Sam scrambled to his feet, hurrying down the stairs after her. He grabbed for a loaded shotgun from his bag, pointing it up the stairs as the two of them panted heavily. "It's not following." He whispered, realising the lights were still on in the hallway. "Shadow demons... daeva." He remembered the horror stories his big brother used to tell him when he was just a kid of demons that could only come out in the shadows. He always thought he was joking, but this was the second time he had encountered them and his brother was nowhere to be seen to carry out the prank.

"A daeva?" Madison clung to his side, feeling even more scared now that Sam was scared too.

"A demon. They can't go in the light and they're usually summoned by powerful magic's." He remembered parts of the lore that his older brother used to scare him with. "You can't fight them, because they're invisible. We have to get out of here."

Sam slid his hands beneath the child's arms, lifting her onto his hip. He made his way towards the front door, realising it was still pitch black outside and the sun wasn't expected to rise for a few hours yet.

"Are we trapped?" Madison clutched his shoulder and her teddy bear tightly, looking out the window at the night time sky. "Will it eat us?"

"Not if we stay in the light." Sam put his back to the door, watching the light in the hallway upstairs starting to flicker. He knew it couldn't just be the bulb again. The daeva was trying to blow all the lights out to get them and there was nothing he could do to stop it. "Here." He dropped his phone into her hand, setting her down by the door. "Stay right there. Call Dean."

"Where are you going?" Madison watched him running through to the dining room, switching all the lights back on. He had no idea what could stop a daeva other than light, so it was his only hope of defending their lives, until his big brother came to save them.

* * *

><p>"Daeva?"<p>

Dean pulled up just outside of the suspected witch's house, trying to listen to what Madison was saying over the static. He climbed out of his Impala, holding the phone up in the air, trying to get a better signal. He heard a few garbled words of what she was saying, before the phone completely cut out.

"Damn it." He stuffed the cell into his pocket, grabbing his gun off the passenger seat, before he ran up the steps of the witch's house. He slammed into the door in an attempt to bust it open, but the door didn't budge. "Hey! Open up, you bitch." He caught sight of her in the window beside him, knelt down at the coffee table with weird looking vials and a spell book with a roaring fire crackling behind her.

He definitely had the right address.

Dean forced his elbow through the window, shattering the glass across her pristine white couch. He quickly climbed through in his muddy biker boots, not even stirring the witch as she continued to chant in a language he had never heard before, drawing a symbol on her table in a thick red liquid that he could only guess was blood.

"Hey." He called out to get her attention again, but she wasn't listening. Deciding to take the more drastic approach, Dean grabbed the edge of her coffee table, completely overturning it so everything was on the floor.

"Nooo!" The witch screamed, standing with a glare directed at the man in her house. "Do you have any idea what you just did?"

"I'm guessing it wasn't good." Dean raised his gun at the shadow approaching, shielding his eyes as it ripped straight through the woman, splattering her blood across the beige walls.

He tried to follow the moving shadow, but it tossed him across the room before he even knew it was there.

"Son of a..."

He held his sore ribs, looking around for the gun that had slid out of his hands. He spotted a small shiny thing first, quickly grabbing for it as he realised it was the last part of the coin. He crawled out of the shadows grip, tossing all four pieces of the coin onto the fire behind the witch's smashed altar. He wasn't sure if it would work at first, but as the old coin started to melt, he heard a screeching sound from the shadows.

Dean quickly retrieved his cell from his pocket, hitting his younger brother's speed dial. He anxiously waited for him to pick up, getting worried when there was no answer. He ran out to his car as he dialled his number again, holding his cell in one hand and the steering wheel in the other, racing over to the house.

"Sam!" Ditching the Impala in the street, Dean ran for the house, forcing the door with his elbow. He picked up his brother's ringing cell off the floor, finding teddy bear George just a few feet away, along with a blood splatter. "Madison! Sammy!" He frantically called their names, following the specks of blood in the carpet towards the sliding glass doors in the dining room that had been shattered.

He took a step outside, quickly sliding to the ground as something swung at his head.

"Dean." His younger brother lowered his weapon, giving out a sigh as he really had come to their rescue. "The daeva." He looked back through the broken door, but he couldn't see it now all the lights were out.

"I took care of it." Dean pulled open his brother's jacket, looking the slices the daeva had taken out of his side. "Where's Madison?" He followed his brother's gaze towards the shed at the end of the garden. "It's okay." He reached through the door, lifting out the child into his arms. Her little fingers immediately clung to his shoulders like daggers, while her frozen little body shivered in his arms. "The daeva is gone. I took care of it."

"How?" Sam rubbed the aches and pains in his neck, shoulders and back from when the daeva threw him through the glass doors.

"The witch, she had this altar set up in her living room. When I destroyed it, the daeva turned on her. Bitch got was coming to her. C'mon," Leading the way back into the house, Dean took a quick look around to make sure there was nothing lurking in the darkness, before sat her down on the dining table to tend to her grazes. "They don't look so bad. Sammy." He ushered his brother over, fussing over the glass cuts to his arms and face.

"Get off." Sam pushed him away. "I'm fine. So, why'd the witch do it?"

"Sorry, I forgot to ask her while she was being ripped apart. Who cares, Sammy." Dean blew it off with a remark. "C'mon, let's get out of here. I'm sick of the freaking suburbs." He grabbed his bag from the kitchen, packing up all of their things. The house they were squatting in was completely trashed now, so they had to make sure they were out before anyone noticed or called the authorities on them for all the noise during the daeva attack.

After a few hours on the road, Dean adjusted the rear view mirror, until he could see the child sleeping in the back seat of the car.

"Go on, say it." Sam glanced over at him from the books in his lap, wondering why he hadn't said it already. He clicked off the flashlight he was holding in his hands, tilting his head back to look at Madison sleeping. "She's not cut out for this. She shouldn't be with us. She's just a kid."

"I wasn't going to say that." Dean sighed unenthusiastically, wishing they could cut a break for a while to get things sorted. He realised now why his father did the things he did when they were growing up. He wasn't being cruel or sadistic. He was keeping them alive, preparing them for the world they lived in. "She can't stay just a kid if she's with us, Sam. We're gonna get her killed if we keep treating her like a kid."

* * *

><p><strong>Thank you for reading and reviewing so far, please let me know what you thought!<strong>

**Sorry for the wait. I had chapter four ready, but I decided to push it to the next chapter, so I could add this one in a little earlier. The Daeva monsters in this one are from season 1 episode 16 - Shadow, which is still one of my favourite episodes. It's a shame they haven't used the Daeva again in the supernatural series, they were one of the first episodes I saw on TV, which got me hooked on the Supernatural series in the first place.**

**~ Holly**


	6. Chapter Five: Parenting 101

**Chapter Five - Parenting 101**

"Woah... son of a bitch."

Dean lost his balance for just a moment, quickly trying to steady himself on the large beam running across the ceiling. He looked down at the bar stools, tables, chairs, discarded beer bottles and a pool table, knowing each and every one of those objects would do some serious damage to him if he actually fell.

He gave his younger brother a reassuring smile, before he inched his foot forwards a little to continue. He wasn't just trying to balance to see if he could. They were following the case of a recent haunting in the area. All of their research pointed to a man named George Cranfield, who worked as a local fire fighter. He was somewhat of a local hero, before he died in a house fire. His only remains were a framed glove at the local bar that he wore when he saved the patrons from burning to death.

And it just happened to be on the highest point on the ceiling.

Inching his foot forwards a little more, Dean gave out a sharp breath through his clenched teeth, seeing his icy exhalation in front of him. "Sammy, heads up."

"Yeah." Sam held the iron bar in his hands a little higher, ready to bat away any spirit that came at him. He just hoped that it would go for him and not his brother on the ceiling.

Dean steadied himself, reaching out for the glass case in front of him, covered with a thick layer of dust. "Man, if this is how you honour your heroes." He brushed down the dust from the clasp, opening it up to take the gloves out. "Sam." He held them over the edge, dropping them down to his brother. "Now let's get out of here and smoke the son of a bitch."

"Hurry it up." Sam anxiously looked around the bar, wondering when the spirit would show itself. He could still see his breath in front of his face and the chill down his spine, but there was still no sign of it. "Dean, this one doesn't sit right with me. The way these people died, this guy doesn't seem like the kind of guy to kill his community like this."

"You never know what goes on behind closed doors, Sammy." Dean inched his way back across the beam, before he managed to climb down onto the bar again. "Who cares why he did it, let's just burn the guy so he doesn't do it anymore." He grabbed the gloves from his brother's hands, turning towards the door.

"Dean."

Hearing the click of a gun, Dean slowly turned to face his brother, widening his eyes at the sight of the gun he was pointing at him. "Sam... what are you doing? Take it easy, we can talk about this. Just put the gun down."

Sam shook his head, aiming the gun directly at his brother's head. "I think I'm done taking your orders."

"Sam..." He raised his hands like a suspect. "C'mon... we can talk about this. I'm your brother, you're not gonna shoot me."

"I'm done talking." His brother took a step closer. "Day in, day out, all we do is talk. About you. About Dad. You've always been Daddy's good little solider. Obeying every order he gives you. Hoping that just once he'll actually notice that you're there. But he doesn't. He doesn't care about you. He doesn't care about either of us. And I'm sick of hearing about him and his orders."

"Yeah, I hear you man. I really do." Dean lowered his hands slightly, making it look as though he was giving up. "We don't need Dad." He lunged forwards to catch his brother off guard, forcing the gun up into the air as it went off.

In the back of the Impala outside, Madison jumped at the sound of the gunshot, fearing that something had happened to one of the Winchester brothers. She slid across the back seat, grabbing a gun from Dean's duffel bag on the floor, before she decided to make her way inside the bar.

Madison slipped in through the front door, watching Dean tumbling through a set of table and chairs, like a bowling ball knocking down a set of pins. She cast her eyes towards the assailant that pushed him, shivering as it was his own brother, Sam. He charged across the room to pick up his brother, continuing the beating with a few heavy right fists to the ribs.

Sam slammed his brother into the edge of the pool table, picking up one of the sticks from the table. "This is how the adventure of Dean and Sam ends."

"Nooo!" Madison finally shrieked, alerting them both of her presence.

Leaving his brother leant against the table, Sam turned his attention towards the child, gunning for her like a rabid dog. She stumbled backwards over one of the broken chair legs, falling hard on her elbows against the wooden floor.

"Sss-am." Dean choked on the blood in his throat. "Sam, no!"

Madison scrambled to her feet before Sam could get to her, leaving the gun behind as she hurried out of the double doors. She took a left into the alleyway, rather than a right back to the car, running as fast as her little legs could carry her. She stumbled to her knees on the next turning, smacking her chin against the concrete floor as she went down.

She held her jaw as she rolled over, watching Sam moving quickly through the shadows after her.

A lethal predator approaching his helpless prey.

A second shadowy figure suddenly cut Sam off, delivering a vicious right hook to his head. He leant over him to check he was alright, before he turned in his heavy biker boots, making his way towards the child in the middle of the alley.

Madison was hoping to see Dean as soon as the man stepped out of the shadows, but instead she saw a much older man. He had a shabby greying beard with moustache, bruises by his right eye and a familiar look to him.

"Are you okay?" He knelt down in front of her. "He didn't hurt you, did he?"

Dean finally made his way into the alleyway, finding his brother crashed out on the floor. He raised his gun to the man knelt down in front of Madison, before he caught sight of the man's face. "Dad?" He didn't know whether he was happy or angry to see the man. He definitely had great timing, but he knew that there was going to be a lot of arguments as soon as Sam came to.

* * *

><p>"Okay, pull it away."<p>

John Winchester pulled away the cold wash cloth from the child's jaw, checking on the huge purplish bruise beginning to form on her chin. He gently grabbed her bottom lip between his thumb and index finger, checking on the teeth marks inside her mouth, where her teeth had sunk into her lip on the fall. Her mouth had flooded with blood on the drive over to his motel room, but it looked as though the ice chips he had given her managed to stop the bleeding altogether.

"It looks okay. I don't think you'll need any stitches." He rinsed the wash cloth in the bowl of melting ice chips, replacing it to her jaw, before he went to check on his other patients.

His youngest son got away with just an ice pack to the side of his head and lots of apologies, while Dean had cuts and bruises all over from their bar fight. He was starting to wish that he could have been knocked out too, but he had to tolerate the pain, until the drugs finally kicked in.

"Dad, how did you find us?" Dean asked him, barely able to move from his position on the bed.

"I was working the case." His father took a seat beside the bed, unravelling the fresh bandages for his son's ribs. "I heard about a couple of detectives working the case, but I never would have figured it was you two. I couldn't believe it when I saw the Impala parked up outside the bar. Then I saw the kid running out the doors," He motioned over his shoulder towards her. "And Sam."

"The spirit possessed him." Dean watched his younger brother researching away on his computer, while he held an ice pack to his head. "Happened right after I took the gloves out. I don't know why."

"George Cranfield?" John checked that they had come to the same conclusion. "His partner killed him, you know. They were on a job together. His partner, Stanley was screwing his wife. He pushed George into a collapsing room to get him out of the way, only to die himself a month afterwards in a drink driving accident. George's spirit couldn't take it's revenge out on Stanley, since he was already dead, so it started targeting partners. The first ones to die, the business partners. The dental practice partners..."

"I never figured that out." Dean rolled his eyes at himself. "I thought the spirit was just targeting one of them, since the other one had no memories of it happening. I thought they were just in denial, since no one likes to believe that there's really evil in this world." He looked over at his younger brother again, feeling a little relieved to know that it was the spirit that had taken over, but it didn't make him feel any better about what was said. "Aren't you gonna ask about the kid?"

John shook his head, helping his son to sit forwards to bandage his ribs. "Madi told me that you're her protectors. I am gonna ask what you think you're doing. Do you really think that you and your brother have what it takes to raise a kid?"

"You raised us like this."

"That was different. I'm your father. It was my job to raise you." John fastened the bandages into place, assisting his son to lay back down. "It's not your job to raise an orphan, just because you feel responsible for her. Do you see what happened tonight? I would have never put you and your brother in danger like that. You have no idea what it's like to raise a child."

Sam glanced up at his brother, wondering if he was going to take that statement. If it had been anyone other than their father, he probably would have argued with him, but instead he just stayed quiet.

Sam set down the ice pack from his hands, smiling at Madison as she stumbled over to his side. "Let me see." He carefully removed the cloth from her chin, feeling even worse for what happened. He knew that he had no control over what the spirit made him do, but he blamed himself for every one of her injuries.

"She's been with us for four months and we've kept her safe." Dean informed his father. "She's even saved us a few times. She's a smart kid."

"That doesn't mean that she should stay with you." John disposed of the last blood covered bandages, throwing the aspirin bottle in his son's direction. "You boys can stay here. It's a friend of mines cabin, but he wouldn't mind you staying for a few days. Downstairs is packed full of weapons. There's devils traps and things around too." He motioned towards the one on the ceiling. "It's perfectly safe."

"You're leaving again?" Sam immediately jumped to his feet, realising that his father's bag was already packed up. "You can't even stay with us for five minutes, can you?"

"Sam." Dean groaned from his position on the bed. "Don't start now."

"Why do you always take his side, Dean? So he shows up now, but where is he when we really need him?"

"I'm not taking his side." Dean struggled to sit up, holding his ribs in agony. "If he wants to go, that's fine. We don't need him. Can't we just get along for once without all the arguments? We're supposed to be a family." He glared at his father then turned to his brother, getting reluctant nods from both of them.

"I'll go and get some food." John grabbed his car keys.

"How do we know you'll come back? You could just leave us out here in the middle of nowhere again." Sam tried to keep his question as civil as he could, but the expression on his face said it all. He didn't trust his father at all anymore. Dean still idolised the man, but Sam had grown out of that a long time ago. "I'll go with you. I know what Dean and Madison like."

"Fine." John decided not to argue, giving Dean a slight smile as he made his way towards the door. He held it open for his youngest son, gulping softly as it would be the first time they were alone together since their huge argument when Sam left them for college.

They were gone for just over two hours, returning in a slightly better mood than they left in. Dean could sense that they had another argument from the looks they kept exchanging. He knew his father had a mission to find and kill the demon that killed their mother and Sam wanted him to bring them along or stop the search, but both were too stubborn to see the others side of it. He just wished that they could get along, so he could have some resemblance of a real family.

He woke up after a few hours sleep, startled by the sound of arguing voices. He knew the peace between them wouldn't last very long, but he wasn't expecting it this soon.

Dean struggled to get out of bed, leaving Madison asleep beside him, while he made his way outside, where Sam and their father were having a heated discussion.

"Why can't I?" Sam sounded like a spoilt child. "What the demon did to us, to our family, it didn't just affect you. It affected all of us. This demon killed our Mom. It killed Jess. This is not just your mission."

"You've never wanted to be a part of this before. You left me and your brother, remember?"

"Do we always have to bring up the past?" Dean tried to get between them before they started throwing punches. "Can you two just have a conversation without tearing chunks out of each other? Where are you going?" He realised that his father's things were all packed up in his truck.

"I've got a lead." John simply stated. "I've been tracking this demon all your lives. It's only just started showing up again. It's like the thing just disappeared after your Mom."

"How do you that it's back?" Sam folded his arms across his chest, demanding some answers.

"There's houses burning down to the ground, with families inside that have a young baby. It's going on all over the place. The only way I know how to find this demon is because of these omens. I've never gotten there in time to save them before."

"What omens?" Dean queried.

"It took me a while, but I think I've figured out the pattern." John opened up the back of his truck, pulling out a file full of his research. "This is from New Jersey." He laid it out on the hood of his truck. "Before the house fires, these things start popping up just a few days before it happens. Cattle deaths, temperature fluctuations, electrical storms... the usual demonic crap. Within a few days, there's always a house fire and the mother always dies in the nursery."

"Like what happened to Mom?" Sam finally started listening, rather than arguing. "Why'd it go after, Jess?"

"I don't know." His father told him the truth. "There's something else. I went back and checked, these omens started up in Lawrence, just a few days before your mother was killed. It seems to be targeting families with a six month old baby." He glanced up at Sam. "You were exactly six months old that night."

Sam rifled through his father's research, realising that the freak weather storms had started up just a week before his girlfriend, Jess was killed. "So, it was after me all along? What does this demon want with me and these kids?"

"I don't know." John shrugged his shoulders. "But they've started up again. I have to go to try and save them this time. And I can't bring you along, it's too dangerous."

"What the hell do you think we've been doing for the past year?" Sam snapped at him, starting up their argument again. "You're not going alone, it's suicide. If you're going after this demon, then I'm coming with you."

Dean sighed wearily, realising their father wanted to end this thing solo. It was his own vendetta against the thing that ruined their lives. He was ready to let him take the whole mission to himself, but he didn't want his brother to get himself killed in the process. He meant more to him than some mission that had controlled their whole lives.

"Sam..."

"No Dean, we have a right to be there. Isn't this the mission that you're always going about? It's what you said to me to drag me back into hunting again." He turned to look at his father. "You raised us on the mission to hunt and kill the thing that killed our Mom, now you don't want us around?"

"It's dangerous."

"Every day of our lives is dangerous. If you didn't want us around the danger, you shouldn't have raised us to hunt. You've even sent us on a few solo hunts yourself, so you can't be that worried about us. I'm going with you." Sam practically ordered his father. "I'm sick of you always barking orders at us, expecting us to follow them without question. We're not children anymore. We want to kill this thing as much as you do. This demon ruined our lives. You can't keep us away from the danger. So, where are we going?"

John gave up with a sigh, searching for the latest signs of omens in the clutter.

"Here. The signs are pointing to New Orleans. They started up a few days ago. We might already be too late, but we have to check it out. There hasn't been a house fire yet." He turned to look at Dean behind him, realising he was a little more reluctant to go with them. "The kid can't come with us. I don't want her blood on my hands too. I don't even think that you should come, Dean. You can barely walk."

"I can fight." Dean insisted. "We can leave her with Bobby."

"Singer?" John shook his head, folding away his research. "He's in the other direction. We have to move on this now. You come with us, you come alone." He warned him, packing up his truck. "C'mon, Sam."

Dean watched his brother abandoning him for a mission, feeling a little betrayed by him. He did stop to look back at him, probably hoping that he would come with, just to referee between himself and his father.

"I can't just abandon her, Sam." He turned him down, slowly turning back to the cabin behind him to see, Madison. She was still fast asleep in the bed with her teddy bear tucked under her arm and a knife stashed beneath her pillow. He hated his father for giving him an ultimatum like this, but he couldn't leave Madison on her own, while he joined the reckless mission to kill the most powerful demon they ever came across.

He stayed at the door to watch the truck driving off, feeling his stomach twisting with nerves as he feared he might never see either one of them again.

* * *

><p><strong>Thank you for reading, please review!<strong>

**~ Holly**


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